


The One That Never Got Away

by Karrissah



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Character Death, Family, Major Character Injury, Psychological Drama, Psychological Torture, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-10-01 23:30:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 55,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17253419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karrissah/pseuds/Karrissah
Summary: X-Ray+Penny spin-off: Mac is kidnapped by Murdoc, but he doesn't get away this time. Instead, Murdoc intends to keep Mac for a 'while' and leaves the team in LA lost without Mac. Although, that doesn't stop them from ripping apart the world trying to find him again, will they get there without losing someone close to them? Can Mac save himself or is he trapped listening to Murdoc's words of insanity?





	1. Stairs

**Author's Note:**

> All of my chapters are unbeta'd and this is reposted from FanFiction.net. Please enjoy!

In a dark and damp room, Macgyver sat with an all to familiar metal restraints around his wrists to each arm of the chair and a pain in the bend of his arm. As consciousness flooded back, he had the sinking feeling when he became aware of his surroundings, or as aware as he could. He felt heavy and tired, he must have been drugged.

"Hello?" Mac yelled, as he called again. "Hello?!"

 

His mouth was dry, and his head was heavy. He tried to focus his eyes to get more detail, but it was like looking through a magnifying glass too far away from the intended target. His body was sore but numb at the same time, this sensation worried Mac but also made him relieved he couldn't feel much. He couldn't rely on his sight, so he put trust in his hearing. Sounds of clinking metal came closer and closer until it stopped.

He heard the sound of a lock and the all too familiar whistle that followed. "Hello, Angus!" The not so distant foe said in a eerlie happy voice. "Did you miss me? Because I've missed you."

"Murdoc." Mac spatt.

"Now, now, Boy Scout. That doesn't sound too welcoming. How about a pleasant 'hello.' That is always a delight." 

"Well if you haven't noticed, I'm not in the most pleasant mood." Mac tried to lift his head but he gave up this fight. He let his head hang to his chest. "What do you want Murdoc?"

"Strait to the point. Always to the point with you. You see, that is one of the things I love the most about you!" Murdoc said with an exhilaration in his voice as he made his way down the narrow, metal staircase. He waved his hands in the air. "But I'm not quite there yet! My dear Macgyver, we must have some fun first!" 

The sound of metal dragging across the metal floor pulled Mac out of his daze. He rolled his head upwards and focused his very blurry vision on the assassin who had sat back wards in a chair just out of range. Watching in silence as Murdocs dark eyes followed Mac's glassy blue eyes all too well. 

Murdoc's attention was drawn to the IV attached to Mac's arm, Mac's attention also followed. He began to wonder what Murdoc had given him and if it was lethal or not.

"You see, the dosing was a bit tricky, to say the least. I had to give you just enough to slow you down, but not enough to make you sleep." Murdoc's eyes, once again, met Mac's. "I need you for something other to play with."

Out of nowhere Murdoc jumped up and Mac let out a scream of pain unaware where it was coming from. He focused his attention on his body. His forearm.

Murdoc pushed the IV needle back and forth into Mac's arm, as to agitate the very sensitive area. Blood dripped down the side of Mac's arm, his face twisted in pain. Murdoc finally pulled away with with the satisfaction of causing pain to the blonde, young man.

"Good! You can still feel pain." Murdoc watches intently was Mac gasped for a breath to calm himself. "Careful Boy Scout. I haven't even started the good games yet!" Murdoc chuckled to himself. 

"On a side note. How has the search for your for dear old dad going?"

Mac joltes up in surprise.

"That's right! I know all about your little adventure. Even, recently, all the way to Paris." Murdoc settle back in his chair this time facing, the right way. "I've been watching your every move."

Mac began to fade out of consciousness and had a rude awakening. The sound of a slap and the sting across Mac's face made sure to keep his attention. "Wakey, wakey sleepy Angus. I want to play games. Remember? But before that, how about a little story?"

The assassin went on for what seemed like forever. Droning on about his wife and the day they had their son. Went on about how he killed his wife and took their child. Love and how her death was poetic. Although Mac doubted the love part of the story, he went along with the rest of it.

"Wh-what do you want?" Gasped Mac as he let his head fall forward again. 

"I told you before, Angus!" Murdoc sighed in annoyance. "We still haven't played any of my favorite games...but since you are so insistent!" A pause. "I want my son." Murdoc's enjoyment died and he just stared straight ahead.

"Cassian?!" Mac laughed, which aggravated the assassin. "I'll never tell you where he is."

"I know that," Murdoc pointed to Mac's bleeding arm, "But I thought a little more...convincing, might help with that."

Mac returned Murdoc's dead stare.

"I will be back with my toys, Macgyver!" Murdoc stood from his chair making his way back up the stairs. "Don't go anywhere!"

The moment the door shut Mac quickly went to work. He pulled the needle from his arm and began to pick the locks to the handcuffs. He stood up and the room began to spin. He grabbed the pole to the IV and began to work to make a pressurized hose to blow the lock off the door.

As he made his way up the stairs, he braced himself for impact as he heard the bang of the lock blasting off. He struggled for his balance as he climbed up the rest of the way. 

As he swung open the door, there stood a dark figure. Mac made his way of the figure with his eyes until he met the familiar stare he had felt only moments ago.

Mac took a step backwards down the stairs as he struggled to keep his balance.

"Oh, Macgyver!" Murdoc smiled widely as he followed Mac down the stairs. "How disappointed I am in you. You are going to make me do something I didn't want to."

Mac's hands followed the cool wall down as he tried to keep his distance away from his capture. "Murdoc? What? What do you mean?"

"This." Murdoc swiftly gave his victim one hard push.

Mac lost his balance and tumbled down the remainder of the stairs, hitting his head at least once on the wall, stairs, and settled flat on the floor. He grunted in pain as the edges of his eyes blurred and darken. 

"You know your much more difficult to-" Murdoc's voice trailed off as Mac could no longer focus and slowly lost consciousness once more.

* * *

This time when Mac woke up he was tied to a bed, firmly. It was a slightly different room than the last, but the same lay out. Metal stairs, square, dark room. The bed was in the middle of the room where the chair had been.

He had a thin blanket to block out the chill that the room forced upon its visitors. The IV was back in place, though in the opposite arm. An immense pain throbbed in his head, shoulders, back and left leg, but the focus was in the danger of a head injury being detrimental. He be began to silently list off all the side effects of the trip down the stairs he was experiencing. Than began a new list of what could happen if worse came to worse and how it needed to be treated.

Mac must have been too busy in his own thoughts because he didn't notice Murdoc had made his way into the room and next to Mac's bed side. "Earth to Angus!" A hand waved in front of Mac's face and drew him out of his thoughts. "Ya still with me Boy Scout?"

Mac tried to pull away as Murdoc's hand grabbed at his jaw and a light zoomed past his eyes.

"Wowza! I did some damage there!" Murdoc sounded proud of what he had done. "Looks like you won't be up for games anytime soon. Well, we have to make due."

Murdoc wheeled a small metal cart over to the bed. Mac's breathing sped up in anticipation of what Murdoc was capable of. "Don't get ahead of yourself there buddy. Unless of course you'd rather have your wounds go unattended?"

Mac stared at him quietly in confusion.

"Oh come on!" Murdoc shook his head in frustration "Do you want me to dress your wounds or not?!"

Mac laid there silently.

"Answer me before I put my generosity for the year away." Murdoc glared at him intensely. "Well?"

Mac gave a head shake of confirmation.

"I'm waiting for the magic words Angus."

"...lease." Mac managed to make choke up partial sounds.

"Well I guess that will have to do for now." Murdoc reached for the antibacterial wash and a clean rag. "You and your manners Angus. I'll have to reteach you everything, don't I?"

As he poured some of the solution onto the rag and gave a satisfying smile in Mac's direction. "This is going to hurt, hopefully more than just a little bit."

Mac bit his lip as the blood was wiped from the open wounds he was unaware he had. "Your lucky you didn't need stitches Macgyver. I mean I have a steady hand and I've patched myself up, but I am not know for my precise or pretty stitching."

"I didn't throw myself down those stairs." Mac retorted.

"Manners. I didn't ask for that comment." Murdoc shot Mac a dirty look. "I don't have to do this ya’ know. Would you rather me not dress your wounds?"

"No."

"No, what?"

"Please continue." Mac knew Murdoc would not trust him to patch himself up. This was his only chance of getting a timely fix.

"Good using please. I like that. Learning fast are we?" Murdoc gave a slight grin. "That was a question." His grin washed away as quick as it came.

"Yes." Mac reluctantly gave the answer. 

As Murdoc continued his handy work Mac suggested, "You know it would be easier for you if I wasn't so-"

"No." Another look shot a chill down Mac's spine. "End of story. I don't trust you, there's a reason that assistance is even required in the first place. This would have never happened if you stayed in your special chair."

"Just a suggestion."

"One that was not necessary. Now if you mind, sit your head up a bit so I can wrap this." Murdoc ushered at the back of Mac's neck.

Mac knew it was best to just cooperate with the simple orders.

"Good. You may put your head back down now." Mac was grateful when he heard these words, everything in his body was scream relax, not even the slight tilt of the neck sent fire to his back and throbbing to his head.

His eyes became heavy and as he drifted off he could feel the slap across the face. Mac's eyes went wide and immediately looked upon Murdoc. 

"I didn't say it was nap time. Do not go to sleep quite yet Angus." Murdoc gave a very stern tone. "One, you do in fact, have a concussion, and two it's rude to fall asleep while people are talking. Did you hear a word I said?"

"Didn't even realize you were talking." Mac struggling to keep his eyes open made very brief contact with Murdoc's. "It must be a side effect from getting pushed down metal stairs." Due to the lack of focus, Mac thought what he had said was the funniest thing of the day, so he began laughing. Shortly after the laughter started, Mac felt a sharp pain in his stomach, which ended the the fun moment.

Murdoc seemed amused by the fact Mac could hurt himself over such a statement, so he ignored the blondes comment and sat back and watched as Mac tried to grab at the center of his body. "You know, that's karma." Now it was Murdoc's turn to laugh. "I did tell you to have manners, didn't I?"

 

“Why are you doing this?” Mac panted.

“I already told you. Cassian.”

“No. Why are you helping me? Besides the fact it's your fault. We both know that you don't have a regret about the stairs.”

“Because I plan to keep you around for a while, and I can't do that if your broken. Now can I, Macgyver?”

“What do you mean by a ‘while?’” Mac had a worried expression on his face. “How long is a while? You know Jack, Matty, and everyone else won't stop until they find me. Find you.”

“Enough, Boy Scout. I told you to mind your manners.” Murdoc began to let the impatience rise in his voice. “We will deal with Matilda and you dear old Jack when the time comes. But until then, shut up and behave.”

After Mac had steadied his breathing once more, he began to ask a question. "Can I please-"

"No. I will not untie you." A quick and uncaring response on Murdoc's half

"Water. Can I have water?" Mac decided to play with Murdoc's 'manners' for a change. "Please."

"Getting you that requires me to leave the room." Glancing at the stairs and slowly back at Mac. "And the last time I left the room didn't go so well for you."

"Please. I can't even move anyway." mac added. "Even if I could I can't make it far in my condition."

"Fine, but if I see you even moved even a muscle, I'll sever your spine." Murdoc said coldly. "Are we clear, Angus?"

Mac nodded his head. "Yeah, no problem. Wouldn't dream of it."

Murdoc hurried out the room to retrieve water for Mac, and make it back before Mac could figure out anything else stupid that would make him hurt Mac even worse.

He looked around frantically for anything he could reach to help him undo the tight restraints. He found nothing. Nothing that he could reach without his back and leg screaming in pain at him. Mac once again found himself in a bad situation with almost no way out. He waited for the sounds of a chopper or a TAC team or Jack. Anything to get him away from this lunatic. No sounds made it to his hopeful ears. He whispered underneath his breath. “Please Jack. Please help.”


	2. Pillow

Murdoc returned with two bottles of water, and made his way back down the stairs and over to Mac’s side. 

“Thank you.” Mac meekly said. He couldn't believe he was at the mercy of this maniac. Mac hated not being able to control the situation, and Murdoc knew this. Murdoc threw him down the stairs, gave him a concussion making it extremely painful to even move, and tied him to a bed. Murdoc took away every bit of his control and intends to keep it for a ‘while.’ 

Murdoc lifted Mac's head enough so that the water didn't spill everywhere and put the bottle to his lips. The cool sensation of water touched the tip of Mac's tongue, and Mac immediately wanted to swallow the entire bottle. He hadn't lied to Murdoc when he said he needed water, but he didn't know he needed it this bad. Mac thought to himself, he would choose water over breathing at this point.

Murdoc lifted the half-empty bottle from Mac's mouth and set it to the side on the metal cart. Mac swallowed what was left in his mouth and relaxed his head back down.

“There all better.” Murdoc knew that Mac having to depend on him was killing him from the inside and Murdoc loved it. “Now that you're all patched up, I have some other business to attend to now.”

“What's that?” Mac's eyes focused on a blurry syringe.

“Just a little assurance that you'll stay where you are.” Murdoc inserted the syringe into the IV and made sure that it all left the plastic tube.

Mac watched the syringe empty out and slowly imagined the flow that the solution would follow and timed out when he would lose consciousness. 

“Sleep well Macgyver.” Murdoc turned on his heels and walked towards and up the stairs as he began to pull a cell phone out of his pocket.

“...ack.” Mac whispered as he saw Murdoc look back with that same creepy smile. His vision began to blur as he shut his eyes.

* * *

Mac heard Murdoc's voice outside the room through thick steel. “...little preoccupied here! Yes! I told you I have a special guest I am entertaining. I can't just pack it up and leave him here! I worked too hard to get him here in the first place!” The sound of banging metal alarmed Mac, but he kept listening. “That's big...that much? No. Too many variables. I like to be precise, I am not a sloppy man. I will figure something out. Goodbye. See you then.”

With the sound of the door opening, Mac instinctually pretended to be asleep. Mac could feel Murdoc's presence uncomfortably close. “Cut the crap. You're a terrible liar. I know you're awake.” Murdoc sounded irritated, no something different. Stressed. “Change of plans Angus.” 

Mac reluctantly gave up his act and turned his head towards Murdoc. “What do you mean by that? How long was I out?”

“Thirteen hours and forty-two mins. And it's just as I said. There's going to be a quick change of plans.” Murdoc quickly took stock of the different vials he had in a black box that sat on the metal table. Shaking the table out of frustration over not finding what he needed. “Damn it! It's not here!”

“So are you going to le-”

Murdoc grabbed Mac's face before he could finish. “I swear if you say, ‘let me go,’ I will cut your tongue out and feed it to you!” Murdoc violently let go of Mac's head, jerking it to the side in the process. “Just be quiet for five minutes!” 

“I could-” Mac began.

“I said quiet!” Murdoc paced back and forth around the room. “I'm trying to think, and as much as I love your voice, I don't want to hear it unless you're screaming.”

“Noted.”

“Angus!” Murdoc grabbed a syringe and pointed it violently at him. “Shut up or I will make you.”

As much as Mac wanted to provoke the assassin, he needed to know the situation he was in if he was ever going to find a way out. So he sealed his lips and turned to stare at the wall.

“Thank you.” Murdoc set the syringe down and calmed himself with a deep breath.

Moments of silence passed before it was Murdoc who broke the silence. “Angus?”

“Hmm?”

“What would you do when faced with an issue that left you between a rock and a hard place?” Murdoc sat down in a chair next to the bed and looked him directly in the eyes.

“Compromise if possible.” Mac looked puzzled at him.

“Good I was expecting that answer.” Murdoc learned forward. “Now say I have this pillow that I need to keep, but it is on the bed and I have to leave soon.”

“Okay, you have a pillow.”

“I need to leave very soon, but I worked hard to get that pillow.”

“Will you ever return for the pillow?” Mac questioned. 

“Probably not.”

“Than take it with…” Mac had a sudden realization of who the pillow was in this situation. “Murdoc, no-”

“It's settled then!” Murdoc pushed himself up and stood from the chair with a new sense of exhilaration. “Pack your bags, Macgyver, you're coming with me!”

“How far do you think this will go?” Mac urged him not to do this. “You think I won't figure something out before you even get where you're going?”

“Come now. Do you think I was standing around doing nothing in here?” Murdoc laughed. “I have a plan for that. You really don't give me enough credit.” 

“Jack and Matty probably already know where we are and are on the way!” 

“Even more of a reason to leave.” Murdoc began to sort through the vials once more.

Mac began to struggle, but pain shot up his back from his leg. He began to grind his teeth as to not let out any sounds that would make Murdoc's creepy smile any bigger.

His leg hadn't really been much of an issue before but now that his head didn't have a drum constantly going in it, his leg burned more than anything. He let out a small whimper, but even the smallest whimper was loud enough to draw in Murdoc's attention to it. He drew up the sheet that gave Mac the slightest amount of cover from the chill and began to move Mac's left leg back and forth, examining it carefully, which caused Mac extreme discomfort.

“It is showing some bruising, but not much to worry about. I mean, it might be broken, but at least we don't have to amputate it.” Murdoc threw the sheet back over Mac's legs. “We will have to do something about that, but for now let's focus on erasing your presence from these tunnels.”

* * *

“Damn it, Matty!” Jack was frustrated with the kidnap of his friend and colleague. “We can't just sit here and do nothing!”

“I know Jack, I want Mac back just as much as you do!” Matty shook her head and pointed to the evidence photographers in Mac's house. “But we don't have anything to go on!”

Matty, Jack, Riley, Kage, and Bozer gathered in Mac's living room. 

“What do you mean ‘nothing to go on?!’” Jack pointed to the back porch where the photographers were centered. “The mask that Bozer made, that he wore? The bottle of wine we shot at him the night he came here? Or how about Mac's little knife sticking out of the wine? What more do you need? It's like he practically signed a damned note sayin’ it was him!”

Everyone wanted to reach out to tell Jack it was going to be okay, but no one was really certain of that themselves.

“Jack I'm sorry, but I have to look at all the possibilities. I want to be out there as much as you do looking for him, but we can't afford to overlook a single detail.” Matty tried to reason with him.

“She's right Jack,” Kage spoke up without looking away from the fireplace. “What if this is some copycat trying to get us off of his tail?”

“Guys I think I got something!” Riley looked up from her computer which she had been diligently typing away on. 

“Great Riles!” Jack clapped with joy. “At least one of us was doing something!”

“Riley. What do you have for us?” Matty spoke over Jack's last comment.

“Well, I was looking at the videotapes from the security cameras all through the street. Now, Mac's were disabled and the ones that have the house in view too, so I didn't catch them taking Mac away.” Riley turned her computer around. “But what I did find was that there was a time gap in when this car here,” she stopped to point at a black SUV, “Stopped moving and this blue car came out the other end of the street before...wait for it...now. The SUV followed just a minute and a half later.”

“Okay, so someone parked, jumped out, and grabbed Mac within that time?” Bozer made sure he was understandably what Riley was hinting at.

“Yes.” Riley confirmed.

“Okay, so can you track them, Riley?” Jack was excited to be up and active instead of pacing around the living room. 

“That's the other thing.” Riley typed in some more information before showing the computer again. “The license plate isn't even supposed to be registered with the DMV for six months.”

“Murdoc.” Jack said as if the name itself was a disease.

“Riley track down that car. Jack, Kage, Bozer, get mobile. Riley will send you the last known location if the car. Let's go get our boy back people.” Matty watched as the three began out the door, eager to get Mac back. “Oh and you guys! Be careful. It's Murdoc who we are dealing with here.”

* * *

Murdoc had removed everything from both of the rooms. He made sure that Mac did not leave behind a single drop of blood or a trace of hair. He had also been gone for what seemed like hours, and when he returned he seemed very pleased in himself.

“Let's be going shall we?” Murdoc seemed very excited. “What are we going to do about this leg of yours?” He looked up the stairs and back at Mac giving him a firm pat on his leg.

Mac gave out a grunt of discomfort. “I'm not going with you.”

“Yes. Yes, you are.” His glare went through Mac's blue eyes. “Even if you didn't, no one would be able to find you down here, and in your condition, you couldn't even make up those stairs.”

“This isn't going to work Murdoc!” Mac was also frustrated. “Riley will use facial recognition on all the cameras across the country!”

“Your dear Riley won't know where to start.” Murdoc had a bag that he gestured to. “I have a plan for that.”

Murdoc stepped forward to the bed to undo the restraints that held Mac to the bed. “We are ready to go now.” Murdoc helped Mac stand and began to whisper in his ear. “You're coming whether you like it or not.”

Mac heard the familiar sound of a gun click behind his back, and the pressure it added to his already sore shoulder. He shook his head. “Murdoc.”

“Angus Macgyver.” Murdoc copied after him. “Saying my name won't keep you from coming with.”

Murdoc supported Mac who was limping across the room towards the stairs, and as they did this he bent down to pick up the bag. Mac hated every minute of it. Having to rely on Murdoc to even walk. It made him sick. 

Eventually, they made it towards the door, and Murdoc unlocked it then ushered Mac to exit. “Let's go on a little trip, shall we Macgyver?”


	3. Manners

Jack had been driving like a manic to the warehouse Riley sent them to ready to burst in with guns blazing. Kage and Jack looked at Bozer who they did not trust not to shoot himself with a gun.

“Stay behind us. If you see anything odd or out of place, you come get us right away,” Kage confirmed with Bozer that he would listen to these words of wisdom.

“Yeah, no problem.” Bozer shook his head in agreeance with Kage’s request.

The moment the trio entered the building Kage and Jack began to clear the main entrance of the building. “Clear.” They whispered simultaneously. Bozer looked over to the right wing of the warehouse and immediately spotted a pair of legs on the ground through the door.

“Hey, guys! Come check this out, I see somebody.” Bozer yelled at them, unable to take his eyes off the legs, in case they and the rest of the body sprang up from where they laid. 

“Well don’t just announce our presence Bozer!” Jack shook his head.

“I don’t think that these guys will give us any problem Jack.” Kage said already looking into the right wing.”I don’t think these guys will be getting up any time soon.”

Jack got a closer look at the two well-built men laying on the ground in a puddle of their own blood. “Two in the back of his head. Execution style.” Jack shook his head. “This one too.”

“Matty. We found the car and the two guys we think grabbed Mac, both dead.” Kage was speaking over comms with Matty who was located at the Phoenix with Riley. “My guess is that Murdoc tied up his loose ends after these guys did his dirty work.”

“Thank you, Kage.” Matty sounded disappointed.

“So Matty, Riley. How do we track them now?” Jack intervened.

“We don’t.” Matty continued with the same tone.

“We what?!” Jack was shocked that Matty would say this. “You mean to tell me this was our only lead and now we don’t have it?!”

“Unfortunately, Jack. Yes, that is what I am saying.” Matty sighed. “We will just have to sit and hope Mac can get himself out of this one. We have to trust him, Jack.”

“No there has to be something else! Something we missed!” Jack was furious. “Look again!”

“Jack we have looked over and over again. That car was our only lead!” Matty knew this hurt Jack the most out of all of them since it was his job to protect Mac and he failed this time. “I’m sorry Jack.”

* * *

Murdoc cheerfully led Mac through the tunnels. “I need you to crawl for me now Macgyver.” He pointed at a narrow tunnel that had daylight at the end of the tunnel. “But once you get on the other side I need to see your beautiful face hands at the other end or else I will shoot you.”

Mac sighed heavily and put the most of his weight on his right leg as Murdoc slowly released him. “And if I happen to get away?”

“Oh, you won’t.” Murdoc smiled at the fact Mac was already trying to figure a way out even with a concussion. “Too many big jagged rocks and a cliff that would kill you before I could. You couldn’t possibly get far enough from me.”

Mac knew he was serious about all these warnings, he also knew his best bet was to go along with the demands. “Got it. Hands and a smiling face.”

“Now that's the spirit, Mac!” Murdoc had tried something new to get under Mac’s skin. He had used the nickname that his friends and family use and it worked. “What’s the matter, don’t you like ‘Mac?’ I mean dear old Jack calls you that.”

“But it sounds horrible coming out of your mouth.”

“That stings. After all that we’ve been through!” Mudroc made the motions of being offended without putting any heart into it.

“You mean after all you’ve put me through!” Mac turned around to head down the tunnel.

This comment may have been a bit too much because Murdoc made one swift movement and kicked out Mac’s legs. 

Mac hit the ground hard. His face turned a slight pink due to the oxygen leaving his lungs. He grasped at his left leg to provide it comfort, but Murdoc stomped on it before Mac could reach his. 

Mac let out a gasp followed but a scream. “Why?!”

“Manners.” Mudroc didn’t give Mac any time to gather himself and hoisted him back to his feet by his arm. 

Mac almost immediately fell again. “Stand.” Murdoc gave another cold demand which Mac tried to follow but did not believe that his leg could support any more of his weight. Murdoc tugged his arm upwards, this time he was able to get some balance. 

“Crawl.” Murdoc insisted at the tunnel.

Mac listened. Biting his lip, to keep him from showing Murdoc the pain he was in, the entire way down the tunnel that felt like it could go on forever. It was cramped and damp so Mac's hands and pants got wet, with what he prayed was only water.

He could feel Murdoc's presence behind him. “Pick up the pace Macgyver, we are on a schedule.”

Mac made an effort to look back, but only saw his own shoulder. He shook off Murdoc's impatience and kept going as fast as he could with an injured leg. 

As the made it towards the end of the tunnel, Mac looked over the side and it was at least six feet down. “You have to be kidding me.”

“Nope. There is a rock that's higher on the left if you turn around you can use your right leg to-”

“Yeah, I got that much.”

“Well look who's grumpy! Ouch. That drug-induced nap wasn't enough for you?” Mac could hear the mocking smile in Murdoc's voice. “Anyway hurry it up.”

“Murdoc. I-”

“It is either figure it out, or I push you! Now as much as I like the idea if pushing you on to jagged rocks, I need you alive for now.”

“Fine.” The inside of Mac's mouth had already been bleeding and he didn't really have much else to bite and the pain in his leg was getting worse.

“Finally.” Murdoc sat there on his hands and knees impatiently waiting and watching Mac maneuver his body.

Mac crouched and pushed his legs to his chest and yelped in pain. “Damn it.” He said underneath his breath barely loud enough for Murdoc to hear. He scooted forward until his legs had enough room to dangle off the side. He proceeded to lay on his back and roll on his stomach and grunted. When he did this he saw Murdoc's face in the tunnel giving a smile that made him feel like he was lying without even saying a word.

Mac pushed himself backward with his arms until he felt his waist began to hang outside of the tunnel. His right leg began to search for some edge of the rock while his left leg hung there and began to throb due to the pressure of gravity. His right leg was unable to find the rock so Mac knew he’d have to push himself further out of the tunnel than he would like. Mac was moving too fast due to the invisible push Murdoc was giving him, and he slipped. Now all that remained was one hand on the edge of the tunnel.

“Damn it Boy Scout I thought you were good at these things!” Murdoc shamed Mac for such a foolish screw-up.

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking!” Mac yelled back. “It's fine I can just let go. It is not too much further from the ground anyway.”

Mac, without waiting for a response, let go. Although he was right, it still put too much pressure on his left leg and it gave out. Mac fell backward and now, in a sitting position, immediately searching for something he could use to get out of the situation. Something that might have fallen between the rocks, he saw something reflective. He slowly navigated his way over the uneven rocks over to the object. A phone! Broken, but a phone! 

As Mac reached over to grab it, he heard the distinct clicking sound of a gun. “What happened to your ‘hands and a smiling face,’ Boy Scout?”

Mac stopped reaching and placed his hands on the ground and gave Murdoc the fakest smile he could manage. “You thought I wouldn’t at least try?”

“No, I expected you to already have some gadget put together.” Murdoc tucked his gun underneath his iconic leather jacket and took a step forward. “I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t.”

“Sorry, but I can’t please everyone all the time.”

“Come on let’s go.” Murdoc, once again, picked Mac up by the arm. “We don’t have all day.”

Once Mac was at his feet they began to make their way slowly over the rocks,

“You know that attempt was quite pathetic if you ask me.” Murdoc ushered Mac to go over a larger rock.

“I didn’t.”

“Well regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing every last attempt you have in you.” Mac stopped walking and looked at Murdoc, who was wearing an overconfident smile. “That is until you stop trying altogether.”

Mac knew exactly what Murdoc was implying. “I won’t stop.”

“That’s what you say now, but trust me. You will either get to the point that you know I'll find you no matter where you hide or won’t be able to even physically try. I will break you one way or another.” The grip on Mac’s arm became tighter.

Mac than had a sense of how long a ‘while’ really was going to be. “I’d rather die than spend time with you.”

“No, no, no. Be careful what you wish for, Macgyver.” He looked to the side as to think. “How does that saying go? Oh! Because you just might get it.” 

The thing that bothered Mac the most was the fact that Murdoc giggled like he was a child, but at this point, he knew it was just better not to let the killer toy with him. For all he knew, Murdoc would take him a few hours away, torture him, and after not getting what he wanted, kill him.

“Remember! We have to be places,” Murdoc helped Mac over the last couple rocks. “Not too much farther now.”

Mac stepped on to the flat ground and Murdoc released his arm. It was a field of dead grass no higher than six inches tall. Murdoc slowly walked ahead of Mac, once Murdoc was at least two feet away Mac pulled a small rock out of the pocket of his pants.

It was big enough to hold in his fist without his fingertips touching after they wrapped around it but small enough that when he fell backward earlier he could put it in his pocket. 

Mac was by no means, running at full strength, but this plan was at least a plan. Mac took a quick step forward and before he knew what was happening, one arm was behind his back the other back in the air, and he had been forced to the ground. 

“Still quite pathetic if you ask me,” Murdoc forced one arm further up his back and the other, his right, in a way it should not have bent. Mac bit his lip making it bleed again in an attempt not to give Murdoc the pleasure of him being in pain, but that only made it worse. Murdoc was after hearing Mac scream and was determined to get it. He quickly pinned the right arm on the ground. That time Mac let out a cry of pain. 

“What even was that? A rock? I’m even more disappointed in you.”

“Get off of me,” Mac yelled without moving. He was stuck in a bad spot and didn’t want to increase the pain. “Now.”

“Or what you’ll pull another rock out of your pocket. Face it,” Murdoc was now just sitting on Mac’s back which made it hard to breathe. “You are better off listening to what I say to do because eventually, I will get tired of such pathetic failures. Be creative.”

Murdoc stood up off of Mac and forced him to come off the ground with him. Mac grabbed at his right shoulder hoping to soothe some amount of pain, but to no avail. 

They walked in silence across the field until they came across this old barn. It looked rustic. Almost like it was supposed to look like that and less like someone just didn’t want to keep painting it over the years. Murdoc sat Mac down against the wall of the barn then walked over to the doors to examine the padlock that was on the doors. “You know, your leg probably isn’t as bad off as we thought it was. I mean, it’s probably broken in some fashion, but not too terribly.”

He glanced over at Mac who was glaring back and holding his right shoulder. 

“Yeesh, someone’s not in a talkative mood.” Murdoc pulled out something small and shiny, by Mac’s guess, a key.

“Leave me alone.” Mac looked forward and viewed his surroundings. Where am I? That should give me some clue to what’s going on. Mac thought to himself.

Mac heard the sounds of chains falling into dead grass and the sliding sound of the old barn doors, but kept searching.

“There she is Macgyver!” Murdoc sounded awfully proud of himself. “Come look at what we will take a ride in.”

“Not really interested.”

“Oh come on, Macgyver,’ Murdoc decided to toy with him. “Pretty please cherry on top?”

“I said leave me alone!”

Murdoc dropped the act and marched over to Mac. “Get up.” Mac turned his head to look up but instead looked straight down the gun.

“Fine, get that thing out of my face first.”

“You’re in no position to make any demands, Boy Scout.” 

Mac used the barn to pushed himself up the side of it with his left arm and limped over to the open doors. Mac turned and gave a puzzled look to Murdoc. “I thought you’d go with something a bit more stealthy.”


	4. Cards

“Stealthy?” Murdoc laughed at Mac. “Oh come now Macgyver, did you expect something like an invisible car?”

“I just thought something like this would be too...bold for you.” Mac looked back at it. “It's just so big. How exactly do you believe this plan of yours will work?”

Now they sat looking at the ruby red semi truck head. It was a larger one, one with a bed in the back. Mac had a puzzled look on his face while Murdoc was more confident in his choice.

“What do you see more than any car on the highways?” Murdoc turned to enjoy the moments of confusion that still sat on Mac's face. “Now, what do you not need to do if the semi doesn't have anything it is carrying?”

“Stop at the checkpoints.” 

“Exactly!” Murdoc was extremely proud of his choice of transportation.

“But won't not having anything only make you stick out more?”

“Only if they know where to look.”

Mac's heart sank. Jack wasn't coming. Matty hadn't sent out a TAC team. Riley couldn't track him. Kage wasn't going to go after Murdoc after someone found him. Bozer wasn't going to be there to crack jokes. No one was doing anything.

No stop that kind of thinking won't get you out of this. Mac thought. Just keep looking for something to use. Quick. What would Jack do? 

Nothing came to mind. Mac's head began to pulsate and throb. The pressure behind his eyes was becoming hard to bare. “I need to-” before Mac could finish his sentence the pain became too great. Both his hands were on his temples trying to do anything to ease the pain.

“Get in the head and you could lay down.” Murdoc offered. It seemed more like he was asking Mac to come over forcing him by gunpoint.

No. I have to make sure I stay wherever I am for as long as I can. Mac tried to reason against why he shouldn't get in. He has a gun. I'm going to end up in there at one point or another. No! Stop it. The longer I stay the more likely a TAC team can find me. They aren't coming.it doesn't matter.

“Get in Macgyver.”

“I-I can't. I-” Mac swallowed the pain. “Have to wait for them.”

“Is that you or your concussion speaking?” Murdoc bent down to look in Mac's pain filled eyes. “No one's coming! I thought you already had figured that out by now.”

Mac's leg burned. More than before, now it felt like it was on fire and slowly cracking all the way up. Definitely broken.

“I gave you some pretty good pain blockers before you woke up,” Murdoc grabbed Mac's left arm away from his head and lead him to the semi slowly. “Had someone develop them special for me. Once it starts to wears off, it does it quickly.”

Mac began to think about what he was just told. Who does Murdoc have working for him? Why am I not struggling? Mac couldn't really think for too long because Murdoc started leading him faster. “I just needed to get you here.”

“What?” Gasp for air through the pain while stumbling due to Murdoc, now, forcefully leading him to the semi. Once the reached it Mac began st away back and forth like he was about to faint.

“That pain has been there all along, it's just been suppressed.” Murdoc set Mac against the side as he opened the passenger door. “I needed to be able to get you through the tunnels without you screaming. It echoes in there and I didn't want to draw attention.”

Mac looked towards the ceiling of the barn as he choked down a cry of pain. He wanted so badly to sit down and take all the pressure off his leg.

Murdoc smiled at Mac after reorganizing items within the seat before pulling out a regular bottle of water.

Mac rolled his head to Murdoc. “You want me to drink whatever is in that bottle, don't you?”

“Bingo. Nice deductive reasoning, Macgyver.” Murdoc signaled towards the open door with his gun shaking up the bottle in his other.

“I'm not going.” Mac was hell-bent on staying where he was.

“We've been through this,” Murod lifted the gun to point it at Mac's head. “But if you really feel the need to be so reluctant, I will help motivate you.”

Mac began to make one of his smartass remarks and as the words began to form on his lips Murdoc spoke up. “You do know Jack or Matilda can also be of use to me.”

“If you touch them I'll-”

“You'll what? Pull a rock on me?” Murdoc pinned Mac to the side of the vehicle. “Don't you realize that you have no power. You have no tools and I won't let you even touch anything to make them. I hold all the cards right now! Come on, show me what you have!” 

Murdoc released Mac, and Mac stumbled forward. Without a word just looked around the barn for something to use. Nothing. There was not a single thing he could even grab without getting shot.

“Either get creative or get in the truck.” Murdoc looked at his watch. “We need to go. Now.”

“I'm not going.” Mac stuck to it.

“Yes, you are.” Murdoc put the gun to Mac's head. “Turn around.”

“I'm not going.”

“Damn it! Turn around!” 

“I'm not-”

Before Mac could finish his sentence he felt a hard connection in his right temple and the hay of the barn scratching against his exposed skin.

“Yes, you are.”

Mac didn't understand what happened in those moments but felt the sensation of water in his mouth. He realized he was in the back of the truck on the bed, sitting with his head against the wall tilted upward. His body was allowing the liquid to enter. We swallowed once.

“Good job. See isn't that much easier.” Murdoc's hand was lightly pressed against Mac's chin keeping his head tipped up.

He swallowed twice. Three times. No, stop. Don't drink it. Mac blinked in confusion and panic. Four. 

He turned his head quickly and began coughing. He could breathe. He felt like he was drowning. 

“No, no, no.” Murdoc took Mac's face back and continued to make him drink it.

Why can't I see clearly? Five. 

He coughed up more liquids.

He pistol whipped me. Concussion. No, I already had one of those. Six. What is this? It tastes like water, but different. What is he giving me? Seven. Why don't I have control of my own body? I still can't breathe. Eight.

Mac pulled away again to cough. “St…” He inhaled deeply and let out more deep coughs. “...op.” 

“It's almost done.” Murdoc grabbed Mac's chin again.

“No.” But these words only came after the bottle touched his lips. Nine. Ten. 

The bottle was empty. Mac tried to stop coughing but couldn't he inhaled the liquid when he tried to breathe. He could feel the liquid burning in his lungs and his body kept coughing as a reflection to remove it.

Murdoc examined the floor quickly to remove anything Mac could grab. He then pulled handcuffs out of the pocket in his leather jacket and picked up Mac's limp left hand. 

Mac weakly watched Murdoc. His eyes followed the cuffs around his wrist and to a panic bar welded into the side of the truck.

“There, now we are ready to go.” Murdoc smiled at Mac and tapped him on the face and turned around to sit in the driver's seat. Looking at his watch he assured Mac, “Now in about twenty minutes, you should be very much so asleep. Don't worry Macgyver, it will be a very relaxing nap.”

Murdoc set all the mirrors, found a decent radio station and faintly turned it on, and let the truck warm up while Mac sat helplessly in the back coughing periodically. 

“Off we go, Boy Scout.” Murdoc listened for a response but only got a weak cough.

Eventually, Murdoc stopped hearing the coughing and turned around to see Mac ‘very much so asleep,’ laying down on his back with his head facing the front.

“Perfect.” The sounds of the hay crunching underneath the wheels of the semi could only have been heard from the outside. Only the quiet radio station and the sound of the engine we able to be heard from the inside.

* * *

After all the evidence had been collected and all the people had finally left Mac's house, Bozer and Jack stared at the empty house through the living room. 

“I'm going to go put my stuff in my room, do you need anything?” Bozer attempted to care for the distraught Jack.

“No, no. I know my way around this house.” Jack shook off Bozer’s hand out.

“Okay, let me know if you need something.” Bozer started to walk away.

“I don't need anything, Bozer!” Jack snapped. “What I do need, is our boy back!” 

“I'm sorry Jack. I didn't mean to make it seem like I was-”

“No Boz. I'm sorry I yelled at you.” Jack shook his head. “I shouldn't have done that. We all want him back. We need him back. It's just so…”

“Hard.” Boz finished Jack's sentence to let him know he felt the same way.

“Go put your stuff away.” Jack waved off Boz. “I'm going to clean up a bit.”

“Don't worry about cleaning up. Putting the fridge back together is Mac's job.” Boz looked at the fridge he assumed Mac pulled out to fix before he got-got. Boz inhaled deeply. “He'll be home soon enough.”

“Yeah, Boz. Thanks.” Jack pulled out his phone from his pants pocket. “ I'm going to call Riley and Matty and see if they found something else yet.”

“Jack, c'mon man,” Boz urged him. “You know they haven't. Just relax. Like Matty said we have to trust Mac to get himself out of this.”

“I can't just do anything, Bozer!” Jack once again was overwhelmed with guilt. “It was my job to protect him and I failed him! I didn't answer any of his calls because of what? A few harsh words? This is my fault. If I hadn't been so mad at him, Murdoc would have never got the chance at him!”

“You can’t blame yourself, Jack.” Bozer looked him in his eyes. “You couldn’t have known.”

“What if Mac evens up dead? I could never forgive myself.” Jack took his eyes away. “I failed him in his time of need.”

“What would you have done if you knew Murdoc was keeping an eye on him?”

“I woulda’ never left his side! You know that!” Jack sat on the couch. “I failed him. I lost him. I need him back!”

“I know Jack,” Boz went to touch Jack unsure if that was a good move but ended up doing it anyway. “I know.”

Jack ended up staying the night with Bozer, in case Mac found hi way home Jack wanted to be there for him. Bozer invited him to sleep on the blow up mattress they could put up in Mac’s room, but Jack preferred to be in the living room so he would know sooner if Mac came home.

Jack stayed up all night long looking in the direction of the front door expecting him to burst through any moment. By the time he had actually fallen asleep it was around two in the morning and Matty wanted them to be back in the war room at seven.

Boz had woken up in the middle of the night to get a cup of water and heard Jack murmuring something. Out of curiosity Bozer stood there quietly listening.

“Ma...come bac…” Jack whined. “We need…”

Boz's heart sank. 

Jack and Mac had been through so much together that it would be cruel if Phoenix ever separated them and refused to allow contact. But not even knowing if Mac was still alive? Damn, Boz bet this was worse than having bombs go off all around you. 

“He will,” Boz reassured the resting Jack. “He will.”

Boz draped a blanket loosely over Jack. 

After Boz went back to bed he stared at sealing for the next two hours, thinking about what would happen if they never got Mac back. And in an attempt to get rid of those thoughts he tried to remember a moment when Mac never had anything in his hands to create something else. Obviously it was hard and the most of his memories were when he’d fall asleep. Boz remembered when he accidentally started a fire in high school, and in his dad’s shed. Mac may have gotten himself into a lot of tough situations but he was usually always able to pull himself out of those types of issues. Boz only hoped this was one of those cases.

“Mac we’ve been without you for twelve hours and what happens?” Boz told himself. “We fall apart. Jack becomes a big old baby and I start thinking you’re dead. You better not die. Jack says you owe him a warm beer and I think he plans to collect on that.”


	5. One Warning

When Mac woke up in the back of the semi he was alone. Mac began to frantically pull on the handcuffs that kept him stuck. “Damn it!” Mac said under his breath and inhaled sharply as he saw the cuffs began to cut into his wrists again. 

He looked around the semi head and couldn't see much past the film that blocked his vision. He blinked to clear his vision and saw a small flat head screwdriver in the middle of the front seats. His hopes immediately rose, if he could reach that he could either pick the lock or pry off one of the links to the separate him from the panic bar. He rolled over to reach the opposite arm over to reach it. He stretched out his sore muscles and still couldn't reach. He tried to reach it with his leg to pull it closer. 

As the top of his shoe barely touched it by the time he looked up to see a familiar dark form walking towards the semi with a brown paper bag. “No, no, no.” He tried again with his leg but just pushed it further away. “No!” Mac became so frustrated. 

Even if he could reach it, at the pace Murdoc was walking he'd reach the door before Mac could even get to work.

Instead of reaching for it again Mac tried his hand again at tricking Murdoc to believe he was asleep.

Murdoc opened the door and lifted himself into his seat and sighed. The sound of crunching leather and breathing was the only thing Mac could here. 

“Drop the act I saw you moving.” Murdoc reached back and slapped Mac's leg. “Now the question is, what were you moving so much for?”

Mac refused to give up so easy and kept his eyes loosely shut. He heard a lot of movement in the truck, and nothing. 

“Don't annoy me MacGyver,” Murdoc sounded like he was directly in front of Mac's face. He began to whisper, “You don't want to see me mad. Open your eyes.”

Mac knew he was in a bad position so he gave up. Mac heard right. Murdoc moved back away from Mac's face and smiled when Mac opened his eyes. 

“You know, you have quite lovely eyes,” Murdoc brought out a blue three-inch pocket knife from his leather jacket. “It would be such a shame if you were to lose them.”

Mac swallowed hard. “Where are we?” He kept his eye on the knife that flicked up.

“A gas station.” Murdoc gave his short answer while examining his knife, turning it over in his hands.

“Where is that gas station?”

“You need not worry, Angus. We are almost there.”

“Where is there?”

“I don't like what you are doing. Don't worry about it.” Murdoc took the key from his pocket and began to unlock the handcuffs. “I bet you need to use the restroom. I have taken certain measures to make sure I don't lose you so you can do so.”

Mac took his wrist and rubbed the cuts staring in silence. The morning light hurt, like someone was taking needles to his eyes after having a hangover.

After finding his way out of the semi Murdoc followed closely behind the knife pressed into Mac's back. Feeling the sharp blade begin to slice its way through the shirt with every step they took. 

“I'm sorry. I do believe I forgot to tell you good morning.” Murdoc mockingly said.

“Mornin’ sunshine.” It took a minute for him to realize what morning meant. “How long was I out?”

“About sixteen hours.” Murdoc was awfully cheerful. “I had to give you two doses of the sleepy time drug to ensure I could take a short nap.”

“Perfect.” So I've been gone for almost two days? Say Murdoc stopped moving for four hours that still leaves us twelve hours away from LA. That gives me a big radius, even if he slept for longer it's still a big area to search. Mac thought. He began to scan every sign and every license plate for any hint on where they were. 

Murdoc must have picked up on this because Mac was shoved forward and yanked back in one motion. The pressure on his left leg was barely tolerable. Murdoc was right, if it was broke it wasn't too severe.

“Keep your eyes to the ground.” Murdoc pressed the blade further into his back to cause an annoying sting. 

Silently Mac looked down at his feet scanning whatever was around. Murdoc saw this obedience and decided to give Mac credit for it. “That's a good boy.”

I need to find some way out of this, but how? Maybe there will be something I can use in the bathroom to help me. He stopped moving and his hand went to his head. He had become dizzy. Man. I can't even see clearly. Maybe I can use this. If someone sees us maybe they'll figure something is going on and call for help. Mac looked up straining his eyes to glance around and see if anyone was around.

As his eyes skipped back and forth he didn't see many other cars besides maybe a few for the attendants there.

“Keep moving,” Murdoc urged him.

Mac shook his head to forcibly clear it and began his march toward the bathroom once again.

Once they got there Murdoc slid Mac up against a wall. “This is your only warning. Got it?”

“Yes,” Mac grunted as he spoke through the pressure of his chest. 

Murdoc unlocked the bathroom with the key that he had grabbed before going into the semi, and shoved Mac in. “Only warning.”

The door to the bathroom shut and Mac looked around. Nothing he could think about using in his situation. A toilet, toilet paper, paper towels, soap, a sink, and an empty trash can. Murdoc probably emptied out the trash to keep him from finding anything that could be slightly useful. He sighed heavily and shifted his weight off of his left leg.

God, it hurts. Mac looked up at the light that was surrounded by sheet plastic. How am I going to get myself out of this one? How will Jack find me if I can’t figure out where I am? 

Mac did what Murdoc sent him in there to do, and gave the light another look. This time examining it more closely with curiosity. He saw a small crack in the plastic that would allow him to take the plastic off if he could reach up and get a grip on it. 

“My brother is in there.” Mac heard Murdoc say.

“Okay, well I am on a ten-minute break and have to get back soon. You think he could hurry it up?” Another voice appeared. It was deep and annoyed at Murdoc.

A knock at the door. “Hey man. There is a delightful human waiting extremely patiently to use the restroom. You think you can hurry it up?” The sarcasm was high in Murdoc’s voice. Mac could only imagen what the other man's face looked like.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Mac made his way to the door and as he opened it he saw someone no taller than 5’6” and no heavier than 120. He was skinny and pale with dark hair to his shoulders. “Sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” The man's dark eyes met Mac’s. He silently pleaded for help but the other man obviously did not understand because he kept walking. Mac watched the door shut to the bathroom.

The gas station attendant looked around the bathroom with extreme disbelief.

“Hey! Wait.” He called out after the duo, who already made it back to the semi.

“What did you do?” Murdoc gripped Mac’s arm with anger.

“No. N-Nothing.” Mac looked towards the attendant.

“Um, I think you may have forgotten something in here.” He called

“What? What is it?” Murdoc interjected before Mac could say anything.

“Um, it is a cell phone.” He walked towards the pair. “Looks expensive, but in order to claim something that an employee found you have to come inside and-”

Before he could finish Murdoc put his hand up. “It is not ours. He broke his two days ago.” Murdoc forced a smile. “Hopefully you find who it belongs to. Like you said it is expensive.”

“Y-You used the bathrooms but you didn’t buy any-”

“But I did.” Murdoc became increasingly annoyed. “Now, we have a schedule to keep. As you can see we are missing a large portion of our vehicle.” He gestured to the empty space behind the truck.

“Yeah, your right. Sorry. Getting here at 4 a.m. can mix you up sometimes.” He let out an awkward chuckle. “For your troubles, if you come inside I can give you some free trail mix?”

“No. No. We will be on our way.” Murdoc obviously fed up with the attempts to get them inside the building. Murdoc pulled at Mac’s arm towards the inside of the vehicle and Mac followed the wordless command.

The attendant kept looking back at the semi on his way back to the bathroom even as it drove off. When he finally made it back in the bathroom he looked down at what he once saw as a mess but realized it was a call for help. A group of twisted paper towels layered the floor in groups and it read: 

HELP ME CALL JACK  
424 776 3892 

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. “Hello? No, but I might know where he is. Should I call the police?” The conversation droned on with the panicked attendant who just needed to use the restroom.

* * *

Murdoc glared furiously through the rearview mirror at Mac who was once again handcuffed to the panic bar. “I told you one warning.” Murdoc grasped at the wheel furiously. “One! And what do you do?”

“Nothing. He was making sure the phone wasn’t mine.” Mac shifted nervously in his seat.

“Ha, ha. Like either of us thought that act wasn’t total crap.” Murdoc flicked on the blinker to signal to the right. “Now I am going to have to make good on my promise.”

“More like the threat.”

 

“Don’t dig your grave, MacGyver,” Murdoc warned as he pulled over the truck.

Mac pulled at the handcuffs when Murdoc rose from his seat and made his way to the back with the black bag. “Now let’s pick up where we left off in the tunnels. That is before you tried to leave before we could play any of my favorite games.”

“We missed out on playing before. But now, now is different.” Murdoc loomed over the slightly disturbed Mac. “We have so many games to play. I think you’re really gonna like ‘em.” He rambled on. “Well, maybe not like.” 

A short pause to admire how nervous Mac was. “But I really think you're gonna be impressed with the game pieces I've so lovingly crafted. You inspire me, MacGyver.” Murdoc chuckles as he rummaged through his bag. “The way that you make something out of another thing.  
I love that. So, I went to my trusty old tools, and I gave them a fresh, new twist.”

Murdoc pinched his fingers and gestured upwards in a spiral motion and all Mac could think about was a corkscrew twisting into a muscle. The thought made him shiver. Murdoc continued to ramble as Mac sat silently scanning the interior of the truck again. “And I am beyond excited to share them with you.” Murdoc was as giddy as a child on Christmas as he pulled his first toy out of the bag.

“Murdoc,” Mac urged. “No.”

“Yes, MacGyver. Yes.” His face was dark as his back was to the light but there was a strange glint in his black eyes.

Murdoc delivered a swift punch to Mac’s gut to make him disoriented first, then the strange tool found its way into Mac’s shoulder. As it twisted Mac’s face shriveled up in pain before letting out a sharp cry of pain.

He could feel the warm blood soaking his shirt and almost hear the flesh ripping as Murdoc twisted and dove deeper into the flesh. Mac took his free hand and gripped at Murdoc’s to push him away but not moving his attacker any.

“Oh, I didn’t forget about that arm, MacGyver.” Murdoc’s voice sounded like he was pleased with the outcome of his game so far.

Murdoc released his grip on the first tool and used his left hand to hold down Mac’s left arm. The tool that was not stuck inside of Mac’s shoulder shifted its weight down as the force of gravity pulled it making the blade tip upwards. Mac grunted as the pressure shifted, which made Murdoc’s lips twitch into a slight smile. “You’re going to really be....well shocked by this next one.”

Murdoc pulled out a small metal knife attached to a chord which stretched through the bag. Mac’s eyes slowly followed the cord as it left the bag and brought a box along with it. His stomach sank as he realized what it was. 

Mac’s lips began to form words. “No-”

“We went through this. Besides this one will be fun.” He laughed. “At least for me, not so much you.”

Murdoc plunged the small knife into Mac’s arm and ripped down his bicep. Another cry from Mac as he gasped for air. Murdoc buried the top half the knife into the open wound as Mac panted. Mac’s head fell down as he scanned the floor for the screwdriver. Damn! Must have rolled when we started driving. If I-

A small electric shock interrupted his thoughts. “Taste good, MacGyver?” Murdoc looked at him with enjoyment and Mac knew he wasn’t quite satisfied and that they were going to be at this for a long time. “That was just a sample to draw your attention back to where it belongs. Me.”

Murdoc crouched in front of Mac. “Your attention belongs to me. Your screams are mine. Your blood is mine. All of you are mine.” Murdoc raised both his eyebrows as to examine Mac’s response more closely.

“Your-”

“Wrong?” Murdoc finished his sentence. “No. No, I am not. This is proof.”

Murdoc held up the box that had a small switch on the top of it. Murdoc’s fingers glided carefully over the switch not pushing it forward yet. “I can make you feel whatever I want you to, whenever I want.” Mac swallowed hard as his eyes traveled from Murdoc’s face to his fingers and back. Analyzing when Murdoc would feel the time was right to flip it.

Murdoc’s face was blank when he flipped the switch so there was no way in telling when it happened. 

Mac threw his head back and his fingertips uncontrollably spasmed. Murdoc turned off the switch when he got a phone call. 

“I’ll be there soon. Bye.” He hung up the phone without letting the other party get a word out. He went back to examining Mac who was attempting to steady his breathing.

Before Mac could settle his breathing the shock traveled through his veins again. His chest clenched and his arm burned. He wasn’t able to breathe properly which made him light-headed.

“Stop.” Mac forced out. The feeling of nausea crept up Mac’s body and he was too aware of this. I wonder why that is? I mean it can’t possibly be from being electrocuted or stabbed repeatability. Even my thoughts are being sarcastic. Damn. 

“But I am having so~much fun, MacGyver.” Murdoc cheered in delight. 

Another wave went through his body and Mac flung his head forward the moment it stopped. He just let it stay there, everything was hurt. His shoulder hurt, his left arm, his leg, his back, his everything. The feeling of nausea incased his gut and he was fighting back the urge to gag and or puke. 

“N-no more shocking…” Mac trailed off murmuring something else. He gave in and started to gag and dry heave.

“Are you saying we move on to something else?” Murdoc seemed both pleased and displeased at this. “I suppose you are right. I wouldn’t want you having a heart attack on me.”

Murdoc began to look through his bag once again but stopped to look at the time on his phone. “Darn, just as things were getting good.” Murdoc lifted Mac's face to look him in the eyes. “I will have to wrap this up for today. We have someone waiting for us.”

“Who?” Mac’s neck couldn’t support the weight of his neck.

“You’ll find out soon.” Murdoc grabbed a smaller box from the front seat and looked back up at Mac’s right shoulder and the unknown tool. Murdoc gave it a small flick which made Mac shift the way he was sitting to keep his right shoulder away from the psychopath. Murdoc saw what Mac had tried to do and took both of his shoulders in his own hands and straightened him back out, so Mac was facing Murdoc straight on. 

Murdoc opened the black box and pulled out gauze and medical tape. “Let me help you there,” Murdoc said in a condescending tone. He ripped the strange tool, now seen as small pliers with rough edges on the outside, out of Mac’s shoulder.

Mac’s sleepy eyes flashed open with raw pain and all he saw was Murdoc already shoving gauze into the wound and placing the tape over it. He did not remember Murdoc ripping a portion of his shirt off to leave the exposed skin, just the pain. 

Mac became more aware of his surroundings when Murdoc began to remove the small knife. He began to pant and grind his teeth while Murdoc purposefully removed it slowly. Murdoc didn’t bother with ripping Mac’s shirt this time around, he just wrapped it up tightly to minimize the blood loss. 

Murdoc began to pack up everything and move it back to the front seat. As he did this his foot glided against something round. He looked down and picked up a small screwdriver. “Could this be what you were moving around so much for this morning?” Murdoc laughed as he took away yet another piece of Mac’s hope. “I don’t know how I missed this.”


	6. Same

Matty looked at all the agents in the War Room. “Glad you’re all here. Sorry for the short notice.”

Riley looked up from her computer, “If it’s about Mac, Matty, we’d drop everything in a heartbeat.”

“That’s right Ri.” Jack had the determined look of a bear missing its cub, and that is about how he felt. He would rip every portion of the world apart looking for him and wouldn’t stop there. He would not be satisfied until he put a bullet in Murdoc’s skull personally. No bars. Not this time. 

“We got a call about 5 am this morning, or at least Jack did.” Matty turned her attention to the older agent. “Jack care to fill them in on what you and the young man talked about?”

 

“Sure, Matty.” Jack stood up and replaced Matty at the head of the War Room. “Apparently our boy was spotted at a gas station at 4:49 sharp. He left a bit of a paper trail in the bathroom for someone a call me. And luckily the kid didn’t sweep it up.”

“Jack, what else did the kid say?” Matty did not want Jack going into the non-essentials.

“Right.” Jack nodded her way. “He said and I quote: ‘Some blond lookin’ really beat up and a man wearing all black bossin’ him around came in and left a message in the bathroom. I tried to stop ‘em but they just got in a big red semi and left.’ End quote.” Jack looked up from his phone.

Matty turned to Riley who was pulling up the security cameras from the gas station on to the War Room screens just to show two blurry figures climbing in the red semi. “I’ve tried to clean it up, but the code was corrupted and didn’t match with the regular systems in the-”

“Ri, I hate to cut you off, sweetie,” Jack’s eyes shot an impatient look in her direction. “But tell it to us short and simple before you trail off on Adobe and a PDF.”

“First, Jack. Just no.” Riley shook her head in disappointment that he didn’t know that those two things are a computer program that goes together. “Secondly, the program they have the camera’s on is too old for me to decrypt in a timely manner. All we need to know is that Mac literally signed his name in the bathroom.”

“Where is this gas station?” Boz asked inquisitively. 

“About ten minutes from San Carlos, Arizona,” Matty spoke up.

“What? He’s like eight hours away.” Boz said happily. “I thought Murdoc would have him on a plane, in the middle of a foreign country, tied up in a jungle somewhere.”

“That was less than an hour and a half ago,” Matty said. “And I don’t think he’s still sporting some big red target.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “No. He’s definitely switched rides.”

“But, Riley,” Kage looked over. “Still locate that semi.”

“Already on it,” Riley said. “But it looks like that truck just started its delivery not too long ago.”

“How long?” Jack began bombarding her with questions. “What’s the license plate on it? What does it say it is carrying? Who is the driver? Wh-”

“One question at a time Jack!” Riley could keep up with all the things Jack wanted finding out.

Jack who swallowed hard, had already silently taken over this op and Matty knew it was better to just hand it over to him.

“Matty,” Jack gave Riley a break. “I want you to see how many resources we can pull together to search that radius we left them in.” Jack decided since she was technically still the boss to add some sort of formality to it. “Please?”

“I’ll look into it. But I’m not sure we can spare many hands with the majority of the rescue team still pulling out that senator from Russia.”

“Yeah, yeah. Still, check will ya?” Jack put his hands over his face and dragged down.

“Yeah, no problem Jack. I’ll do my best.” Matty heard the distress in his voice. “I’ll pull every resource I can for Mac’s sake.”

“Riley any, um, any new details on that truck?” Jack immediately tried to force the ideas that came flooding into his head when Matty said she’d do it for Mac.

“Yeah,” Riley pulled up the file of one Mr. Cloga. “Driving for sixteen years. Works for a Bosdinga Company that sells jeans to general stores. Truck digits are 34687, license matches the 4 numbers that the attendant was able to give us.” 

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Boz was very visibly confused. “How could all that match up with a truck that’s in route already?”

“Copied the truck,” Kage spoke clearing her throat. “Made himself invisible to anyone spotting him. He’ll likely take the back roads off the highway and away from any real police routes.”

“So that way if a BOLO was put out for the semi, they would get Mr. Cloda,” Boz was beginning to make sense of the whole thing. “Not him.”

“It is Cloga, and yes Boz,” Kage agreed with the conclusion he had drawn. “That is exactly it.”

“Ri, try facial recognition?” Jack began grasping at straws.

“I would love to,” Riley didn’t agree with that plan. “Even an hour and a half away from that gas station could take hours to search, and by that time I’d have to run it again for a new search perimeter.”

“Even if you checked only the back roads?” Jack began running the gears in his head.

“We can’t afford to look over a single detail, Jack.” Kage reasoned with him. “She could try the back roads first and go to the main ones next but…”

“But that means I have to do every road manually, which would take longer.” Riley put her hands halfway in the air.

“Damn it!” Jack yelled. “Something has to work! We have to find him! We can’t lose him!”

Kage stepped forward to soothe the angry Jack. “I know and we will. We will. We just have to take a little more time and-”

“He might not have time!” Jack looked like he was on the brink of tears.

“Relax, Jack,” Boz spoke in a calm voice. “Maybe rest a little.”

“I will rest when Mac is home!” Jack looked away from the group and stared at the ceiling to hold back his tears. His face was hot and he knew it was red but at this point, he didn’t care if they saw it, at least they would know he cared about Mac, even if they already knew how much he meant to them. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mac sat in the back of the truck nausea creeping up again and again regardless of how many times he swallowed it back down. Blood still warmed his shirt and everything still hurt. It wasn’t as pleasant as a dull ache, but not the worst he’s been through, yet. 

Mac imagined what Murdoc was going to do to him, he knew he shouldn’t, but he did it anyway. He knew that Murdoc was probably going to reuse the makeshift knife and electric machine. Mac knew he should stop thinking that way, but he couldn’t help it. 

The way Murdoc took pleasure in making Mac scream and the way he looked at him, Mac dreaded those looks from Murdoc. He just couldn’t deal with those looks...he just...just couldn’t. Something about them was wrong and he knew what that feeling was but not where it came from and that’s what made the look so hard to deal with.

Mac looked forward through the windshield and caught Murdoc’s glance at the same time. “Boy Scout! How I love your enthusiasm. I do, but unfortunately, the destiny is supposed to be a surprise!” Mac could hear the smile in Murdoc’s voice. “And I would be mad if you ruined the surprise I have planned for you!”

Mac knew it was best to wait for Murdoc’s next comeback instead of adding fuel to the fire. He kept looking for road signs or something that would give him an indication of where they were.

Suddenly Murdoc stepped on the brakes and Mac went sliding forward and ended up on the floor. His arm stayed connected, barely Mac thought, to the panic bar and a gasp shot out of Mac’s lungs as a blast of pain shot in all directions. Murdoc did not completely stop the vehicle, in fact, he kept driving as if nothing ever happened.

“Better get back in that bed before I put you there,” Murdoc’s head filled with ideas. “And if I have to stop this truck, I will make it worth my time.”

The idea Murdoc was implying was enough to make Mac puke, which he was already on the verge of doing. Mac dry heaved, nothing was in his stomach, so nothing came up. He did as he was told though. He pushed himself back up in the bed to avoid ‘making it worth Murdoc’s time.’ 

Pushing himself back up was almost, if not more, painful than getting down there, to begin with. His added pressure to the muscles in his bicep only made it bleed worse. He could feel the blood making it moister and the lousy patchwork that Murdoc felt just like it was, lousy. Mac felt like he was losing a lot of blood, which the bandages were supposed to be stopping. Apparently, even if a wound was cauterized as it was open even the blood starts to smell like burning flesh. He wished he had something on his stomach that could either settle it or he could throw back up to make it feel better. 

He was sweaty and cold at the same time. Not a good sign, might be an infection. “Murdoc…” Mac croaked.

“What?”

“Why?” Mac tried to get more moisture to accumulate in his mouth, he just could manage it. Damn, sweaty, cold, and dry! How do you manage a combo like that?

“Why what?” Murdoc looked back at him. His head was tilted up against the back still. “Why did I step on the breaks? Or why am I bringing you along? I have explained both of those enough for an intelligent being like yourself to figure that much out.”

“Why anything?” Mac was confused and in a lot of pain.

“Why do you do anything, MacGyver?”

“Because I-” Mac shook his head. “I asked you first.”

“So you do have an answer to offer in exchange?” Murdoc giggled to himself.

“Of sorts. I asked first, I get your answer first.”

“Very well,” Murdoc said dryly. “Because it’s fun. You know, being the best in your field. Knowing no one is better than you. Showing off what you have to offer.”

Mac froze, more than he already was. He was thinking along the same way, he could just straight up say ‘Hey psycho, same.’ He needed something else. He knew why he could do stuff and the reason he kept doing it was solely that he could and no one else could. But the important push was saving lives.

“Saving-”

“Lives?” Murdoc laughed. The sound of the deep voice rang through his head like he was standing in a church bell at a marriage ceremony. “No, no. Then why do you ‘tinker’ with things in your own home? Why do you blurt out random facts? Why do you correct people when they make a mistake? You obviously don’t save anyone when Jack cannot get the old sayings correct my friend. There is something deeper and I plan to find out why just because I can do it but no one else can.”

Mac began to think, no more like question himself. He quickly brushed it off as Murdoc trying to get in his head. Murdoc’s answer was probably forced to match what Mac was most likely to say.

“You know, MacGyver. You and I are so similar. So very similar.”

“No. No, we aren’t.”

“What was it I said to you while you tried to pretend to be me. It was one of the times we spoke in an interrogation room.” Murdoc forced a forgetful sounding voice. “Ah, yes. ‘See, the difference is that when you cage one of your cancer cells, they call you a hero. When I kill one, they call me a psychopath.’ I will always fondly remember that statement.”

“Yeah, but what does it have to do with being the same?” He added. “Which we are not.”

“Well, you see. We might handle the situation different, we strive for the same goal, for different reasons, but the same why.”

“I don’t understand.” Mac was confused with all the same’s and different’s that were thrown in together.

“Come on. Use that beautiful brain of yours.” Murdoc shook his head. “Well if I have to spell it out for you I will. We use different methods to get rid of the same problem. We have different forces pushing us to do it but the same ‘why’ that gets our blood boiling. You have your little team of misfits and I had HIT.”

“We are not the same.” The words clung to the back of his dry throat and rang through his head. He needed water again. He guessed it had been almost eighteen hours without water on so many different medications. 

“Ah, but you will see we are.” Murdoc giggled and continued to drive.

 

“Driving like this...around...freely, Riley will find you.” Mac cautiously waved his free hand in the air. It hurt like hell but he needed to make his point. “I thought you didn’t like being sloppy.”

“Oh~sweet, sweet Angus. I am being my utmost careful. In fact, I plan on our little Riley finding this truck.” Murdoc smiled and as he did Mac shuttered. He didn’t have to even see Murdoc’s face to be creeped out.

He said ‘our’ like Riley belonged to him. It made Mac just want to puke more. Riley wasn’t even close to being his little anything. That three letter word alone wanted to make a ditch being a pacifist and cut out Murdoc’s tongue right there, right then.


	7. Confidential

Jack paced around the room asking everyone to double and triple check their work before they submitted the information as a false lead. Jack was the guns, he was the muscle. Without the action what good was he? He couldn’t hack into cameras like Riley. He couldn’t boss around people like Matty. He couldn’t analyze people and their tactical decisions as well as Kage. Damn, even Boz was going more than him. Boz had taken tasks with Matty running telephones with Jill and making calls just to hand them over to Matty once she was done yelling at the last person on the phone. Everyone was doing something, but Jack was freaking out on anyone who even suggested him to take a short nap or eat. 

“Hey, Jane?” Jack corrected himself. “Jess? How are things going on your end?”

“Jill.” She corrected him for the millionth time. “Not good. Matty has one operative back on there way from Russia on the senator's case, but her team is wasted and exhausted. She might not be any better. And there’s this other thing.”

“What?”

“The attendant is dead. Found dead at 7:22 by a customer asking about pump seven.”

“Shit!” Jack shook his head. The only guy who could give a positive ID was dead. “Ri, how about those cameras, I know they bad but we gotta try. Murdoc must’ve called in some sort of favor or debt to get this done. Keep him from spilling anymore to us.”

“The whole store lost power about forty minutes before the customer even arrived.” Riley typed away. “That’s why he was asking about pump seven. He wanted to know if there was another way to get gas.”

“I have the agents name if you want it, Jack,” Jill informed.

“Ok, Jen,” Jack waited for the correction he knew should be coming, but when Jill finally gave up he continued. “Send me her fill, will ya?”

“No can do, Matty says her security clearance only grants her the first and last name of the agent.”

“Jack,” Matty had been put on hold. “Jill is right. They won’t even give me so much as a middle initial and this agent is coming from our sister agency in Los Vagas.”

“I need to know who we are working with Matty!” Jack was furious that their own sister union would give them such little information to go on.

“She volunteered Jack,” Matty took a deep breath in. “But not for free.”

“What does that mean?”

“Her daughter Macalynn, 4 years old has been kidnapped as well. She says if we promise to help her get her Mac back, she guarantees to get ours back.”

“You spoke to this lady?” Jack sounded unsure. 

“Yes, Jack,” Matty wanted to put all of Jack’s worries to rest. “Her director who apparently has a high enough clearance to gain access to all of my teams' files, even if I can’t touch one of his, says she's a deadly mix between yours and Mac’s styles.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, Jack, she might not be smarter than blondie but she sure in the hell is up there.” Matty’s voice shook. “And she has one hell of an aim and a slightly worse temper.”

“Matty, I don’t want anybody who has a temper around our boy!” Jack almost broke. This was the agent he’d be throwing at Mac? What if her temper broke and she took a wrong shot and got him killed? “He has Murdoc to deal with and-”

“Shut up, Jack. She has been the only agent who has even looked in our direction.”

“Give me the information on that kid of hers. Unless her kid is above your clearance too.” Jack sneered.

“She already sent the file straight to us with your name on it.”

“Why’d she send it to me?”

“Because you're the muscle, Jack.” And with that Matty hung up the call and Riley, who had been listening in, pulled up the digital file of one very young Macalynn Petrona.

Jack began looking over the file, happy to finally do something that might be productive to find his partner, his best friend, his ki-.

No, he’s not mine. Mac is looking for his dad. All I can do is be there to support the kid and get him out of whatever hellhole Murdoc has him in. Jack thought. He looked back on the small child with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Even in her official records pictures, she was smiling a great big, genuine smile. It reminded him every bit of Mac. He didn’t stop the tear from inching its way down his scruffed face, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Riley, who was the only one still in the War Room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mac didn’t know when he lost consciousness or even how long he’d been out for, but what he did know was that a lot had changed since then. They were now in a black Sadan, he had a foul taste in his mouth, his hand's hand been tied together and to his lower torso with a blanket over them, he was leaned against the back window of the passenger side, and Murdoc was sitting next to him with another bottle of water and an empty plastic cup.

“You threw up. It was quite gross.” Murdoc informed. “So I thought you might want to rinse your mouth out.”

Mac just glared at him remembering the last time Murdoc had him drink something. 

“Relax, I mean for you to use this to rinse your mouth out.” Murdoc moved the bottle closer to Mac. “What you do with the rest of it is your choice.”

“What’s in it?” Mac looked down at the bottle.

“Water.”

“What else?”

“H2O?” Murdoc also grew puzzled. “You don’t think I put something else in it do you?”

“It’s hard to believe that you didn’t.”

“Well, I left it sealed just to show you I didn’t”

“Injections.” Mac pointed out.

Murdoc squeezed the bottle firmly. “No water came spuing out.”

“Resealed.”

“Honestly, MacGyver! You give me way too much credit.” Murdoc laughed. “I don’t have time for that. But that will be something I must try with Jack and his favorite beers.”

Mac was shooked. No. Not Jack. “You better not.”

“It would be your idea if I did.” Murdoc ushered the use of the water again.

“Fine, but I can’t reach it.” Mac looked down at the blanket that covered his lap.

“Now, you really think I’d allow you to have your hands free?” Murdoc’s eyes showed no emotion but he contorted his face to show something similar to a human confusion. “No, no. Tilt your head back.”

Mac reluctantly agreed. The taste of bile was very disgusting and he’d do whatever it took to get rid of the taste. Murdoc would allow Mac to keep small amounts of water in his mouth at a time and spit it out into the cup. Once Mac decided he could live with whatever was left behind he began swallowing the water from the bottle. Murdoc saw what was happening and allowed more water to flow into Mac’s mouth

Murdoc carefully watched from the side as he saw Mac’s throat bobbing up and down and the small drizzles of water find their way down his cheeks like tears. The beauty of holding possibly the worlds most precious asset in his hands made hard for Murdoc to allow the moment to continue to be any more silent. “That’s a good Boy Scout.”

These words made Mac cough up the little liquid that was still in his mouth. “What the hell?” He choked out. 

 

“What?” Murdoc found nothing wrong with what he had said.

“Nothing,” Mac said knowing it was better not to keep a conversation with Murdoc for long. He’d drive himself crazy if he did that.

“Now, let’s get going then.”

“Where to?” Murdoc gave Mad a dirty look. “Worth a try.”

Murdoc left through his side of the door and as the door was still open he moved a small lever in the upwards position, probably the child safety lock if Mac had to guess. Murdoc shut the door and as he did Mac tried in a quick and desperate attempt to open his. Nothing. All it earned him was another dirty stare from Murdoc. “Worth a try, Angus?”

“Yes,” Mac whispered.

 

“If it had earned you a bullet or possibly the loss of some fingers, would it still be worth the try?”

 

“Depends if it worked and how far I got.”

“You will never get far from me Angus.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three inpatient hours later, Jack stood not ten feet away from the mother of Macalynn, outside the Pheniox, because Matty ordered him to go get fresh air or she would send him home with armed guards. When Jack had said those guards would be better spent finding Mac she gave in a glare that would make most people quit and neede therapy.

She was a slender 5’6”, the woman, who looked about seventeen but swore up and down she was almost twenty-one, still left Jack unconvinced. She had a short sandy blonde pixie cut, practical for the field she would add, but looked as if she had cut it last night due to needing a fresh new look for the tiring operation she’d just finished. She looked exhausted and had a bruise on the left side of her collarbone that looked just the right shape to be a size thirteen shoe print. Jack guessed that underneath her hoodie and black jeans she probably had more of the same sized injuries, if not worse. Her eyes were probably supposed to be the same as her daughters vibrant baby blues but due to jet lag and lack of sleep that many agents get had, they turned a dull grey color.

Jack offered her a quick med check down in the medical lab of Pheniox but she politely turned down the offer. They made their way up to the War Room, but before that Jack thought he’d try his hand at “pleasant conversation” that was more like a small interrogation. 

“So-”

“Sirena,” Sirena filled Jack in.

“So, Sirena, Rena if I may,” Jack tested the boundaries, but she looked too tired to care about the man she just met trying to shorten her already short name by two letters. “How is it at the age of twenty do you manage to have your entire identity so classified, that the one person with the highest security clearance I know, can’t even access your middle initial?”

“If you know that it is classified,” She began. “Why ask?”

“Just curious,” Jack admitted the truth after on hard glare. “Okay, fine. I’m worried.”

“About?” Her voice was soft and calming but from what little Jack had heard, there was a snake hidden somewhere in her vocals. 

“My partner.” Jack couldn’t hide anything, not even from the woman he’d met three minutes and thirty-two seconds ago. 

“He means a lot to you, as most partners often do.” They stopped walking. “But he must mean more. From the file I skimmed, he is somewhere in his mid-to-late twenties, and you are a bit older. Not only are you listed as his bodyguard, but on any mission, he goes on he ends up getting hurt worse when he is not with you. And your agency has made a special note of your codependency.”

“How the hell do you know so much?” Jack stood there.

“I have a temporary security clearance that rivals Ms. Webers, I thought I would use this as much as I could to learn the dynamic between his team and him.” 

“And?” Jack looked in her grey eyes and noted that the blue was slowly returning to them. “What did you find out.”

“Ms. Samantha Kage is the newest member of your team. Riley Davis hacked into some rather confidential files and landed herself into a supermax prison until the Pheniox foundation found uses for her skill sets after Nikki-”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” Jack shook his head and they once again picked up their journey to the War Room. “What I meant was-”

“You guys have a very close relationship, well you Wilt and Riley do. I haven't seen much evidence about the close relationship with Samantha.”

“Look Kage is a good person but…”

“You don’t have the super close relationship like with Riley, Angus, or even his roommate Wilt.”

“Bozer, Riley, Mac, Kage, and Matty,” Jack took a deep breathe in. “Are my family and I just want to protect them.”

“I’m sorry.” She looked down. “I’m not sure if I got ahead of-”

“No, no. Don’t go getting sappy on my this early. I know you’re just doing your job analyzing everything.” Jack smiled and added. “Besides I heard you're a badass.”

She gave a slight smile that reminded him of the picture he’d seen before of a younger her, but this smile had seen some unpleasant things. Things that he knew a twenty-year-old mother should not have seen. “So how old were you when you had Macalynn.”

“I had Mac when I was sixteen almost seventeen.” A flicker of pain came across her face that was quickly erased by her next statement. “But she is the smartest little girl in my whole world, and I will not stop until I get her back.”

“Same here Rena.” Jack put a hand on her shoulder carefully not to put too much pressure on an existing bruise in case there was one. “Same here.”


	8. Trust Issues

Jack had watch Rena type away relentlessly trying to pinpoint locations and next possible actions. He had, unknowing what was about to happen, let her use the big screens as a workspace with the map. In minutes the screen had colors all over it that Jack didn’t know even existed. She claimed “color organizing” but he was 98% sure she got bored and started drawing a rainbow clown on the maps. 

“Rena, no offense,” Jack stared at the mess on the screen. “That doesn’t even look the least bit organized.”

“Well, it is, Jack.” She looked up to explain it to him. “The blue markings are the known places he has been, the red where the semi has been spotted, the yello-”

“Yep, got it,” Jack looked back at the paper file of Macalynn and his own computer. “Organized.”

Kage stood up to stretch and walked behind Rena to see her work. “You are making an awful a lot of assumptions.”

“What?” Rena didn’t take her eyes off the screen. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the yellow path. The path least is taken and the one he’d most likely take, right?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know for sure,” Kage looked in Rena’s eyes, something there was hidden. “You don’t know this guy.”

“From your files, neither do you.” Rena glared at her. “Besides, me not knowing him. Is a big assumption too.”

“Do you know him?” Kage scanned the other faces in the room to see if they were as shocked as she was. No one bothered to get involved in whatever was going on.

“You tell me if I know him,” Rena pushed away from the laptop and stood to meet Kage's glare. “You're a people expert. Read me. Make me spill my secrets. Tell me who and what I know. If you can’t go back to your own work.”

Kage knew she had pressed a button, but she wanted to see where this was going to go. “You're a desperate mother, who also thinks she knows the best was to find someone when a team of twenty can’t manage to get a single pin on a semi!”

“And you, think just because you can, you should,” Rena was frustrated and exhausted. “You think just because you can read spies and terrorists that you should do it to every person you come across. I bet you did it to all of your teammates and you still do it.”

“Hey,” Kage started shaking her head lightly. “I am only trying to get a better sense of the person I am working with.”

“Well, you are one who decided to butt into my work and tell me what I was doing wrong when for all you know, we know Murdoc just the same! Not at all! You can’t go doing that! Not everyone thinks the same as you Samantha and thank God for that!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” At this point, a few eyebrows were raised.

“It means,” Rena huffed. “If we don’t look at every angle your agent is gone for sure. You judging the way I work because it isn’t the same method you’d use or the same road you’d use doesn’t mean it won’t be used.”

At that moment Matty walking in the room. “What’s going on here?” She eyed Kage who hadn’t taken her eye off of Rena. “Agent Petrona, is there an issue?”

“No, as long as I can work without someone over my shoulder,” Rena looked over to Matty. “Ms. Weber, I know that your agents are worried about Angus, but I need space if I am going to get him back. That’s the only way we are going to get Macalynn back as well. I can’t afford to miss a single detail and I-I just can’t.” Rena put her hands in her face. “I’m sorry I blew up on Samantha, I just need to find a way to to get both our Macs back.”

“It’s fine, I knew I was pressing a button and I shouldn’t have continued.” Kage looked away.

“Kage, no more of that. Alright, I want to be filled in on our progress people.” Matty looked at the screen and winced at all the colors. “I also want to know why there is some sort of clown on my screens.”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Jack closed the files.

“Alright, who’s first.” No one volunteered. “Riley? What do you have?”

Riley made a face of frustration. “Two more of the same semi! Exactly the same. Matty, they are all too close to each other. I don’t know where to even start.”

Rena popped up. “How many of them are carrying cargo or even something that might make you think it was cargo?”

“Well out of the four confirmed, three of them.” Riley rubbed her eyes.

“What are you thinking Petrona?” Matty looked from Riley to Rena.

“You can call me Sirena if you want, and it’s a goose chase.”

“I knew that.” Riley sighed.

“No, it’s a tactic used for carrying very important people. Government officials to drug lords.” Rena continued to explain. “Get the same exact car, or truck in this case, and go in different directions and then switch vehicles later and have someone else keep driving the ‘goose,’ if you would.”

“Switch to what?”

“Another common vehicle, switch from back roads to main roads and--bam!--no one knows which one you are or what car you are in. Murdoc had to call in a lot of favors or paid a lot to do all this though. What does MacGyver mean to him?”

“A challenge in a sick game.” Jack scratched his head and worry lines formed as a frown washed away all hope.

“What am I even looking for now?” Riley closed her eyes and leaned back.

“Looking for a new semi that matches your description and-” Rena sat back down and began typing. “And wait for them to sign in to the trucking logs saying they are on there way to pick up the cargo, and we should have a new search radius.”

“Also, all trucks are on a similar radio frequency to pick up traffic calls and receive instructions from their employer.” Rena had the same look Mac gets when he’s figured out a plan, or part of one.

“So?”

“So...If we were to get into the radio frequencies that takes out part of the hacking since, although I don't doubt Riley, it is harder to hack a radio, especially one on an unknown frequency.” Rena looked at everyone who had gone silent and knew, from working with Mac, it was better to wait until she was done.

“How are we going to find that frequency if we don’t know it?” Kage asked innocently, wary to step on Rena’s tail again.

“Well, if I were on the field, I’d create a frequency organizer.” Rena looked a Jack who seemed lost. “Something like a magnet to one radio station.”

“So, it would bring all of the truckers in one frequency?” Jack looked no less confused.

“Not just truckers, Jack.” Rena took a deep breath, “Everyone. Hikers, cops, EMT’s, everyone within a let's say sixteen-hour driving radius. Which we cannot do without limiting it to semi trucks, which is extremely difficult.” Rena grabbed the keys to what Matty assumed was a rental vehicle supplied by the Las Vegas agency.

“And where are you going?” Matty said but went unheard to Rena’s determined ears.

“Riley, which copycat semi is the closest?”

Riley looked confused but typed in the request anyway. “One is about two hours from here. Why?”

“What’s its destination?”

“I can send the route to you.”

“Perfect, thanks.” Rena nodded as she began to head out.

“Where are you going?” Matty’s voice demanded an explanation this time.

“I’m going to hunt down a semi.” And with that, she dashed out the door with a laptop, keys, a phone, and a jacket.

“Someone go with her.” Matty laughed. “And fill me in on the way!” She called after Jack who had been itching to get some action and already almost caught up with Rena.

Although Matty didn’t like the fact that two agents just bolted out the door without any details and one of them was a borrowed agent, she wanted more than anything for progress to be made and Mac to already be in the War Room being teased for not having at least a peephole to act a security system. She wanted more than anything than for the coffee table to be littered with paperclip sculptures and to have to yell at Mac to get his feet off it. Nothing more than to yell at the blondie for being late to yet another meeting. She wanted to tell him and Jack not to be having side conversations during a debriefing. She just wanted to see that he was okay, not being tortured by some maniac who like leather way too much. She could bear the thought of Mac not coming home. Mac made the Phoenix Foundation. Bozer and Jack were agents who joined because of him, and Riley isn’t holed up in a supermax prison anymore because of Jack. If Mac was gone, so were over half the team. Kage would be the only one left. 

“So Kage,” Matty turned to the long-haired agent. “What the hell was that with Sirena?”

“Just curiosity, that’s all.” Kage looked down ashamed she had started a fight for such a stupid reason.

“And it killed the cat,” Matty added to Kage’s statement. “I know you better than that. What do you think about Sirena.” 

“She’s hiding something,” Kage said bluntly.

“She’s hiding a lot. Like she’s supposed to. She’s classified.”

“No something that might link her to Murdoc or Mac or-”

“Are you saying she might know Murdoc?” Matty said.

“It might be possible.” Kage looked back up, surprised Matty even would listen.

“How is that possible? Murdoc said Mac was the only one who has ever survived him.” Riley was in the midst of trying to hack the radio comms for all trucks made by the same company that sells the red semi that Murdoc had so many of.

“Maybe she didn’t need to survive him.”

“Are you saying she worked with Murdoc? Kage do you know how absurd that is?”

“I’m just saying Matty, I don’t get the vibe that she was a contract of his or that she was tasked with taking him down.” Kage defended.

“She wouldn’t have been tasked with taking him down since he wasn’t on anyone’s radar until we caught him the first time.” Riley rubbed her eyes once again.

Matty closed her eyes to think. “Well, I will take your concerns in and give them thought, but keep you ‘vibes’ to yourself Kage. She’s the only agent who gave herself to this case. Yes, she wants us to find her kid, but she prioritized finding Mac before searching for her own kid.”

“That’s what I don’t get Matty! Why would a mother give up a chance at her own kid in order to help find someone she doesn’t even know?” The Aussie accent floated through the room with frustration sinking hard into the ears.

 

“I’m not sure. But all I know is she’s here.” Matty turned around to have the colors of the screen bounce back off her face as she stared at the clown on the screen. It looked back at her jokingly, almost mockingly but not quite there. “I’ll make a few calls, but in the meantime, will someone save this thing and get it off my screen?” Matty’s eyes grew tired of looking at it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“So MacGyver,” Murdoc chimed. “Wanna tell me where Cassian is?”

“Still no.” Mac’s voice flat and hoarse from yelling and too many medications. He shifted underneath the blanket. It was too hot to be wearing a blanket. Balls of sweat formed irregularly at his temples and shivers of cold went down his spine. Mac cursed his body for being unable to pick a temperature and stick with it, every time his body felt cold then hot it was like a million knives stabbed his back and he could hear whoever was controlling them laughing. He could barely focus through the pain and Murdoc’s constant annoyance. 

Mac’s head fell against the window and his eyes began to weigh themselves down. “Just le me sl..pp”

“No, no. Don’t sleep quite yet Boy Scout.” Murdoc said, but it didn’t really sound like he cared that much what Mac did at this point.

Another shiver came and went. Damned body! This isn’t good. Sounds like an irregular heart rate, irregular fluctuation in body temperature, concussion, blood loss, possible infection, and so much pain. Bozer is going to make one hell of a chicken noodle soup. Which plate will he use? The plain ones or the ones we got from that garage sale? Soup doesn’t need a plate...wait does it? No. No, it doesn’t. Where was I? Mac’s thoughts began to scramble themselves and he couldn’t even concentrate on where he was. I am in a car with Murdoc, handcuffed and injured. I need to find a way to get out of here. I need to find a way where Jack can come get me. Jack, please hurry.

“You know MacGyver,” Murdoc initiated yet another bothersome conversation. “We are going to have so much fun here.”

Mac assumed they were close to their destination. “Where’s here?”

“Really not going to get creative and try and trick me into an answer?”

“Too smart to...trick.” Mac gave a slight smile. “We both know that.” 

“I like your flattery and your bluntness equally MacGyver.” Murdoc kept looking in the mirrors and at Mac then back to the road and would start all over again. Murdoc was a pretty good driver for an assassin. No speeding, no sudden lane changes or weaving through traffic, no road rage, just driving. Mac gave credit for that to never wanting to be pulled over for even the smallest traffic offense to avoid getting caught. “You are so amazing MacGyver.”

Mac winced at the compliment. If felt all kinds of wrong. The look he got, the voice it was delivered in, the words themselves. Everything was wrong.

“No, you really are! Most people would have already lost it by now. Lost hope and gained fear. But not you. You are special.”

“I am trained for situations like this.” Mac tried to push the thoughts away but everything was screaming at him that something was wrong.

“Don’t kid yourself. Training is nothing like real life.”

“This isn’t...isn’t the first time I have been kidnapped.” Mac began to pant, his chest still hurt, it began to tighten and release, tighten and release.

“Sadly, people have touched what isn’t theirs, yes. But no one compares to the horrors and nightmares I provide you.”

“You give everyone nightmares.” Mac laughed and quickly stopped. Tighten and release.

“Be honest with me,” Murdoc’s voice lowered. “Have you ever had nightmares about me?”

“You're sick. Why ask me something like that?”

“No, no. I am in perfect health, unlike you. I am genuinely curious.”

“Fuck off.” Mac blurted out. Tighten and release. Tighten and release.

“I bet I do. I also bet you scream out for your precious Jacky about them.”

Tighten and release. Tighten and release.

“Oh, how I would love to hear what you scream while your unconscious,” Murdoc purred. “‘Jack! Jack! Help. Don’t leave me. Not like my dear old dad did. Not again!’” 

“Stop it!’ Tighten and release. Tighten and release. Tighten and release. Murdoc laughed over the pounding of his own heart in his head. “Just stop!”

“I also wonder if Wilt has to come running in, to soothe you back to sleep? Or does he just listen to you scream too?”

Tighten and release. Tighten and release. “Stop.” Mac panted. He could not even hear himself think, literally. Between Murdoc talking and laughing, his own irregular heartbeat, and his breathing there was no room for anything else.

 

“I wonder if you’ve ever spent the night at Jack’s and if he has ever heard this? What does he do? What does it do to him? Knowing that he can never be enough. Knowing that he is just a replacement and he will be cast out once you’ve found your real daddy. Must be devastating for him.”

“I said stop.” Tighten and release.

“Having to sit on the sidelines, going on wild goose chase after chase with you, again and again, to find a man who wants nothing to do with you. Even though he is standing there, wanting to protect you, make you happy, give you what you need, but you take it and still want your dear old papa bear! How much more of this before you push him away completely? I wonder if he’ll even look for you because of it. I mean six missed calls to Jack and no reply back? Man, you must have pissed him off with that rough conversation on the Seine. Maybe he is putting in his resignation as we speak.”

“Stop it.” Tighten and release. Tighten and release.

“Do you even think anyone noticed you were gone until you didn’t show up for work the next day? I mean Jack certainly doesn't.”

“Stop it!” Mac snapped. Tighten and release. Maybe he was right. Had he pushed Jack too far? Tighten and release. No, Jack is Jack. He’d never abandon me. Never. Right? But my dad said the same thing...what if everyone is the same? Dad left me when things got rough. Jack will too. No stop. Stop! A tear of inner conflict rolled down Mac’s right cheek and he quickly turned from Murdoc’s view.

“Oh, feisty. Whatever happened to that nap you said you were going to take?” Murdoc sound quite satisfied now.

“Shut up.” Everything in Mac had died down. His heart rate slowed, his chest relaxes, and everything became numb. There was something pulling at Mac. A strange darkness. He knew what was coming.

“Play nice. You don’t want what you say coming back to bite you, do you?” Murdoc laughed again.

Mac let the darkness hold him for just a second. If it took some of the pain away he’d do anything, but even a second was enough.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“What the hell are you doing?!” Jack yelled at Rena over the roaring sounds of the wind.

“I’m just, just-” She yelled back stretching her body out the passenger side window going nearly 65 miles per hour.

“Just what?” Jack swerved as the road began to contort itself around the mountains. “Get your ass back in this car! I was given clear instructions not to break you.”

“Than don’t swerve!”

“I had to!” Jack looked back and forth between the road and a small black object with wires and buttons sticking out everywhere that she had taken apart her own phone fir. Thank god she didn’t ask for mine. I’m saving that for Mac’s crazy ass and a crazier escape. That’s right. He will escape. Jack thought. “Mind filling me in?”

“Remember that thing about radio frequencies and tuning them into one-”

“Radio magnet thingy?” Jack summed up all the science talk he was going to get from her.

“Yes. That thingy.”

“Wait what about the hikers and cops?”

“Well, they can hold onto there secure frequencies for now. Riley was able to send me some details about the certain model of truck and the company that produces the radios and I was able to make a electro-”

“English name for me please and thank you.” Jack was not going to hear some word that had more letters in it than the alphabet.

“Company trucker radio tracker.” She shook her head in disbelief that she wasn’t able to finish her banter, but the giddy look on Jack’s face made it worth it.

“So you’re tellin’ me if you get that thingy to stick to that truck,” He pointed across the lanes. “You can track all of Murdoc’s ‘geese?’”

“Sorta kinda. This will allow us to see all of the trucks that use the same companies radios on a map, all Riley will have to do is hack into air control and find all of the semi’s and locate the one that doesn’t have any cargo, because that means it’s carrying the most precious cargo of all.”

“Mac.” Jack became determined. “Alright, what do I need to do to get you closer.”

“Get close enough to where the diver can see me.”

“Don’t you not want to be seen? Isn’t that the opposite of what you want?”

“I going to get him to pull over.”

“How in the world are you gonna do that? What if that’s Murdoc and Mac?” Jack only sounded shocked but Rena knew that he dealt with something similar constantly.

“Well, there are four of the same semi, even if the one without a cargo bin is most likely him,” Rena looked at the truck and back to Jack. “I’ve got about a 75% chance to get this right and I’m a lucky gambler and those are pretty high odds, especially for me.”

“I should take you to the casino sometime than, huh?”

“Twenty Jack, twenty. I want to drink as I win Jack. Makes the other poor suckers think I’m just a ditz who doesn’t know how to play.”

“Right next year. You, Mac, me, and everybody else will all go to Vegas.” Jack laughed as he could feel hope crawling its way back up

“You, Mac, everybody else and I.” Rena corrected.

“God can’t ever catch a break.” Although confused at what he meant Rena laughed along with the older agent hoping it would keep the mood positive.


	9. Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although everything has slowed down. It will take a wild turn soon enough.

Mac could remember bits and pieces of the trip or what had conspired during that time, but he foggily remembers stopping and Murdoc strapping something into the seat next to him. It hurt him to try and remember anything more. 

He shook his head to clear the thoughts and closed his eyes to get rid of the blue film that covered his eyes. He knew they were moving again, the gentle purr of the engine let him know before the blurred figures flying past him told him so. A new unfamiliar sting on the lower half of his leg, one that bothered him a lot. What happened? When did I get this? He couldn’t see it but he felt the way the fabric of his pants stuck to his leg he knew it had to be less than a few hours ago.

“What is that?” Mac nodded his head in the direction of a--Mac’s heart dropped. It was a car seat, one that was too small for Cassian. “What’s it for?”

“Glad to see you awake after your failed attempt!” Murdoc was as cheerful as ever. 

“My what?!” Mac skimmed through what was left of his memory, nothing. He had no knowledge about any escape attempt. All he knew was he head hurt worse than before and his leg had a dull sting in it.

“Oh my! You don’t remember do you?” Murdoc’s voice became low and condescending. “Well, that might have something to do with your little head injury.”

“What is the car seat for?”

“No, the correct question to ask would be who is the seat for. And we went over this once before. Before you tried what you tried and I did what I had to do.”

“What did you do?” Mac fixed his positioning and grunted at the littlest movement so he gave up and decided to stay where he was.

“This is too great MacGyver!!” Murdoc laughed. “Your head injury is getting worse and worse, and we are getting further and further from anyone that once cared about you.”

“Once?” Mac whispered. He knew that all of this is just part of Murdoc’s mind games, even down to the wording. Mac cleared his throat and spoke louder. “What did you do?”

“You can feel pain correct? Or did some brain injury severe some tie to the nerves that cause pain?” Murdoc glanced back. “I shot your leg. It’s just a graze. Not much damage but it sure did stop you from what you were doing.” 

Oh great, that’s what that is. Who is the car seat for? Not Cassian, he doesn’t have any relatives...I think. It hurts. Jack help. Mac swallowed hard and asked again. “Who is the seat for?”

“We’ve already gone through this.” Murdoc shook his head out of frustration. “I am not going to keep telling you if you are just going to keep forgetting it.”

“Forgetting what?” Mac’s head swung to one side and his eyes fluttered open again.

“I was hoping you’d stay lucid for a bit longer. I guess these things can’t be helped after all.”

“What things?” Mac’s mind blurred ideas, sentences, and words together, unable to tell which part belonged to which.

Silence fell in the car as Mac waited for a response. Nothing. No words came. Just the sounds of other cars flying by.

“Who is the car seat for?”

“Shut up and put your head down.” Murdoc was no longer laughing or teasing Mac due to his inability to form anything but questions.

“What? Why?”

“Do as I said.” Murdoc snapped.

“What’s happening?”

“Put your damned head down!” Murdoc had enough of Mac. Not that he wasn’t still inspired by him, just that if he had to deal with him he’d rather do it while Mac was at full strength.

Mac meekly did what he was told because even in a confused state he knew better than to piss off a man with a gun when he could not do anything to stop from getting shot. 

“That’s a good Boy Scout.” Mac cringed and blinked sluggishly.

They were pulling over. What’s going on? Everything began to begin to cut in and out. One moment they were pulled over the next Murdoc was standing outside of the car and another the back passenger side down opened and there were voices. So many voices and figures everywhere. Jack help me. 

Mac’s head stopped for a solid moment. 

“Who’s that?” A female voice with a Russian accent gestured towards Murdoc.

“Just my special guest. I talked about him briefly.” Said Murdoc.

“I see. He will no be a problem I assume?”

“No. No. I told you, I am not sloppy. If he would have been interference, he wouldn’t have made it this far.” Mac swallowed hard. His head hurt too bad to come up with a witty comeback before his head began to spin again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jack shook his head. “What the hell girl?”

 

“What?” Rena asked innocently.

“Matty will have my head if anything happens to you.”

“We were fine Jack!” She protested.

“Hanging off the side of a semi with an automatic pointed your way is not my definition of fine!” Jack shook his head again. “Fine is sipping a cold beer next to a pool on a weekend!”

“At least it worked,” Rena looked at Riley who had met them in the hallway before the War Room. “Correct Riley?”

 

“Yeah, it did.” Riley looked over at Jack. “Don’t worry you won’t have to explain anything to Matty, the satellite cams caught it all.”

“What? Oh please tell me she doesn’t have that look on her face.”

“Which look?” Rena looked at Riley for hopes of an explanation.

“Oh trust me, kid, you do not want Matty to give you the look. That thing will make your brains melt from the inside out.”

“Is that what happened to you, Jack?” Riley turned to walk back in the War Room before Jack could create a comeback.

“Hey, watch it Ri.” He called.

“Jack,” Rena laughed. “Let’s go in a see what we can find out.”

 

“That’s the plan.”

“Good work Sirena.” Matty greeted them as they walked in, “Jack your driving can use a little work but all in all five out of ten.”

“Five? That’s all I get?” Jack stood astonished.

“Back to business,” Matty’s tone became flat. “Thanks to your hard work we were able to get the other three semi’s locations. But unfortunately, the final semi had already been picked up.

“Did you talk to the driver of the fourth one?” Jack lowered his view to the file of a middle age man who just happened to be the truck driver.

“Kage did and what she found was an empty lot with no cameras anywhere for twelve miles with over thirty-two different roads leading out. Not one of them caught a single car leaving to get on the freeway. Not one.”

“Whats the search radius?”

“Well from where we found the semi and when the driver picked it up, about 60 miles and that was ten minutes ago.” Everyone stood silently in the room.

Rena read the room and knew everyone was trying to find out possible solutions. “I have to ask, were there any indications that Agent MacGyver was even in that semi?”

“Yes, there was,” Matty looked at the ceiling and turned around to click the screens. “Blood and other bodily fluids were found in and around the bed that is located in the back of the truck.” The images popped up. “A direct match to MacGyver.”

When images of the back of the truck popped up along with a picture of Mac, Bozer made a quick line for the door. Riley followed after him.

“I had to ask. I didn’t want to follow a lead that was dead.” Rena said like she had done something wrong.

“It’s okay. I was going to have to get there eventually.” Reassuring her that she hadn’t asked anything wrong.

“What else? Any bragging notes or calls while we were gone?” 

“While Murdoc is that type of person, he hasn’t sent us anything yet.” Taking a closer look at the pair Matty saw that both Rena and Jack were exhausted. “Before you fight me on this Jack, this is an order. Go get some rest, clean up, sleep. Do whatever you need to do to refresh. You too Sirena.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rena agreed to avoid ‘the look’ Jack and Riley were talking about.

“Matty you-” Jack started

“Jack. Order. Go. Now.” Matty shook her head. “I don’t want to see you on any of my cameras for the next five hours.”

“But Matty. It’s Mac and I need-”

“Need rest. Take Sirena and yourself to a room and go sleep, Dalton.” Matty using Jack’s last name sealed his fate.

“Jack, if anything happens in the case I’m sure someone will come to get us, but until then, you need rest. C’mon, I’m resting for Macalynn and you should rest for MacGyver. Please.” Her eyes pleaded with him and eventually won over the reluctant Jack.

“Matty. Anything happens, you call me.”

“Alright, Jack.” Matty took less convincing than Jack.

“Anything.” He added as he started for the door.

“I will.” She nodded in reassurance to put him at rest.

“I mean it.” He popped his head back through the door before leaving finally.

“Go.” She called back at him and received a thumbs down from Jack through the windows of the War Room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mac was groggy, confused, and couldn’t manage to open his eyes this time. They were just too heavy. It was too warm to leave the darkness. So he didn’t he let his ears do all the work for him. Although he didn’t find much out he heard a song, the song Murdoc is so fond of, but this time there were two voices. One he was able to determine was Murdoc’s and the other a high and soft tone that would melt hearts, one that even melted and smoothed out Murdoc’s own tone and pitch. It was young and docile. It was fragile and it was in the hands of a destructive human being, and Mac wanted to scoop it up and hide it away. All this from just a voice. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Murdoc was extremely pleased with himself. Everything was going as planned and he had even gotten Mac to start singing along with him in a dazed state. He did everything he possibly could to push Mac’s voice higher so that he could hear it, but with every attempt, Mac got even quieter. So he let Mac sing together. I have got to record this and send this to Jack or someone. Someone that would see MacGyver was beaten, bloody, barely conscious, and singing. Oh, Jack would get a kick out of that! But I can’t risk that. Not now. I have other issues to tend to. He thought to himself.

“How are you doing back there?” Murdoc glanced back at the new passenger who was mindlessly looking out of the window. No response, just a gentle humming that followed Mac’s singing. “C’mon, you can talk to me!”

“Who are you?” The docile passenger asked.

“It’s me. I’m your Uncle Dennis!” Murdoc said in a cheerful yet manipulative voice.

“Momma never talk about Uncle Dennis.”

“Well, I’m new. Someone your mother will be happy to see.”

“New?”

“Yep. New, old. I’m both. New to you. Old to others.” Murdoc grabbed a green and purple sippy cup and pasted it to the person in the back. “Here, drink something and take a nap. It will be a boring ride.”

“New to me?”

“Yep. New and exciting.” 

“I don’t know. Momma told me not to-”

“Talk to strangers? That’s good. But I am not just any stranger, I’m Uncle Dennis. Remember?”

“Yes I ‘member.” The child grabbed the sippy cup and began to mindlessly watching out the window, periodically taking long drawn of drinks from the cup.

“Good.” Murdoc took up his singing once again with Mac at a low hum now.


	10. Strays

"Damned it!" Jack took a metal shelving unit that contained useless black boxes and ripped it to the ground.

"Hey," Rena softly said with all the sympathy in the world. "It's going to be okay."

"Okay? Okay?!" Jack yelled at her. "Our boy is sitting out there with Murdoc doing God knows what to him and we keep getting dead ends! How the hell is that okay?!"

"We'll find him."

"It's been a week! Five days since you came on!" Jack yelled towards the wall but Rena knew every word was meant for her. "I thought you guaranteed to get our boy back!"

"I did. I do, but-"

"But what?!" Jack shook furiously. "Can't you do what you came to do?"

"I'm sorry Jack, but-"

"But what?!" Jack yelled.

"I'm sorry you have had someone you care about ripped from your life." Tears began to form in her tired eyes. "And now you don't even know if they are alive or not. You don't know if they are okay. You don't know if they are hurt seriously and left in a room somewhere to bleed out alone. That you can't hold them tight and make everything better! So I'm sorry!"

Jack's heart broke. "Ren, look kid. I'm sorry." Jack's voice became soft and fatherly, they had been through a lot in the last five days. It seemed almost like they were finding everything but Mac. Two drug cartels and a human prostitution ring just from following up on the other three semi trucks. Rena and Jack would have probably both been dead if not for their vests and keen reactions. "I shouldn't have taken it out on you." Jack had only just started calling her Ren instead of Rena that morning, it had bothered her that he made a nickname out of a nickname but she got used to it just as quickly as she got used to getting called Rena. He only called her Ren when he wanted to be caring and gentle, especially when Macalynn or Mac came up, which was quite frequent.

She glared at him in silence as tears formed in her line of vision. Jack moved towards her and opened his arms to her. She did nothing to stop Jack, but she didn't wrap her arms back around him the minute he embraced her. "I'm so sorry kid. Look at me." He looked her in her eyes and wiped away the first tear that fell. "I'm sorry." He grabbed her head and pressed it into his shoulders. Jack had assumed the role of father for yet another stray, working with Rena.

She just sat there in Jack's arms, limp. Saying nothing but listening to Jack stutter and murmur his apologizes while donating his warmth to her. "Please," Rena sniffed as a steady stream of tears fell down her face. "Jack, please stop. You are a distraught parent as well."

"Yeah but yours is actually, well yours. Mac, I'm just his bodyguard, his military brother." Jack had also begun to tear up, but not wanting her to see his weakness, he held on to her.

"No," Rena lifted her arms to Jack. " No. A parent who loves their child would give anything to keep their child safe. They would do anything. They love their child unconditionally. They protect them and laugh with them." Jack listened to the young mother as she went on. "They would tear the world apart in order to get them back from the clutches of danger, and a parent's fear is often confused for anger." Rena tilted her head up and whispered in Jack's ear. "As far as I can see, he is yours and you are his. I'm not mad and your not mad, we are scared, scared for our kids."

"How are you so wise, kid?" Jack laughed through the pain hidden behind the truth of her words. He wiped the tear that had also made their way down the worry lines of his face.

"I'm a mother, I know what to say to calm people down." Rena released Jack and he followed, taking his warmth with him. "Besides, I know you'd do much worse than what you did to that shelf if it meant finding MacGyver."

"Thanks, Ren." He smiled and looked down at the boxes that had once been stacked so neatly.

They began to step over the boxes and make their way towards the door. "Hey, I'm driving." Jack held out his hands for the keys.

"And what makes you think that?" She teased trying to make the tears stop flowing.

"Well, because I plan to actually eat something after this and I want a fightin' chance to keep it down." Jack ushered her for the keys. "Now hand them over."

"Oh, C'mon! I was only going to show you my best Vegas driving." She smiled a bright smile. "Better than some LA driver."

"Now, I'm from Texas. That means-"

She rolled her eyes. "I've seen you drive., Jack."

"And?"

"Just like an LA driver." She threw the keys up in the air and caught them before Jack could snatch them up. "I'm driving."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mac felt the cold tile against the bare skin of his back and legs and heard the familiar sound of a shower. There was a rolled towel under his head and neck, it was warm and comforting. He felt the hot steam against his chest and knew he was left, alone, in his boxers in a bathroom. He didn't dare move. It hurt too much to even try. He barely looked up to his left and saw a pile of bloodied bandages. "Ah~." Mac let out as he moved his head back to the white door. Even that was enough to let his capturer he was awake apparently.

The door slowly opened and Murdoc appeared from the other side. His head popped in first and looked down at Mac and smiled a Cheshire grin. He never lost that smile as the rest of his body snaked around the door and he lightly closed it.

Mac had never seen Murdoc in anything except black and leather so he was taken back to see him in blue jeans and a white T with no gloves. Murdoc took a few steps closer to Mac.

"No." As Mac tried to move away from Murdoc by sliding across the floor he let out a yelp of pain.

"Shh, Shh. MacGyver," Murdoc crouched next to him. "Our guest is asleep."

"What?" He panted. "Who?"

Murdoc gently smiled and ran a finger down Mac's chest. "We will talk after we get you cleaned up. I mean you've been asleep for five days so you might-"

"Five days?!" Mac tried to sit up but his lazy limbs did nothing.

"I said to be quiet, I just got her asleep!" Murdoc put one hand under Mac's neck and the other on his hip. "C'mon. Let's get you moving."

Murdoc rolled Mac over on his right side. "Ow!" Mac shook his head. "Stop."

"No," Murdoc continued to move Mac without his permission, at this point his touches were almost fatherly and gentle. "A fever is hell on your body. I'm getting you cleaned up whether you like it or not."

Mac weakly pushed Murdoc to the side and pressed his back up against the wooden cabinets. "I said no."

"You're going to get an infection." Murdoc shook his head and grabbed Mac's shoulder, which he once again pushed Murdoc off, and Murdoc just let it happen not wanting to escalate a situation. "You need to listen to me."

"No." Jack had to work so hard to get to even pat his shoulder, no way in hell was he about to let some homicidal maniac touch him.

"I am trying to be nice and not submerging you in the bathtub downstairs! Now listen to me."

Mac put his arms up defensively and raised his voice. "Ugg, Murdoc! I said no, stop!"

Murdoc's patience wore thin and the ring of a slap and the sting of a hand filled the room. Mac's crystal blue's meet Murdoc's deadly browns. "I said keep your voice down!" Murdoc whisper yelled. He grabbed both of Mac's shoulders and his eyes went back and forth between Mac's left and right eyes.

"N-no." Mac tried to pull back but Murdoc's grip stayed firm. "Just get off."

"I'm trying to help you!" Murdoc moved his right hand behind Mac's neck.

"It wouldn't even be an issue without you!" He desperately tried to take Murdoc's hands and put them where they should be, next to Murdoc.

Murdoc could tell that Mac's concussion wasn't completely healed and he planned to use that. He began to hush Mac once again, rubbing his shoulder. In Murdoc's best calming voice. "Come on Boy Scout. Let's get you cleaned up."

Mac whined and shook his head gently in protest, while Murdoc nodded his head against Mac's wishes. Eventually, the confused and frightened Mac let Murdoc set him in the shower.

The steam rose and the individual streams of water massaged his back. "Not so bad is it?"

"Sh't up." Mac slurred. But it wasn't. It was hot and it burnt at first but once Mac got used to it he enjoyed it thoroughly. Mac let the water pelt him as he sat on the floor of the shower. It relaxed everything, he barely noticed his dull aches, although when the water hit his leg and arms it was a bit uncomfortable, he didn't move. He found he was still tired.

Jack would tell me that I wouldn't be able to sleep for a month because I had slept for five days. Jack. Mac's heart sank. Jack, I'll figure something out.

Eventually, Mac felt his eyes droop and bolted up and he felt a hand on his back.

"Hey, hey." Murdoc laughed. "Ticklish much?"

Mac mumbled something Murdoc couldn't understand that made Murdoc laugh again. "I'll take that as a yes."

Although the water was pleasing, the fact Murdoc was touching him so...so gently, it bothered him. He tried to focus on the sensation of the water pricking his skin and eventually Mac lost consciousness once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mac woke up in a basement with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, a thin and springless mattress, a bare pillow, and a thicker blanket. His clothes, if you could call them that, were royal blue scrubs. although they didn't provide as much heat that the blanket did. He was warm and hungry.

He ended up deciding that figuring out how to leave as soon as possible was more important than being warm. He slowly sat up with a chill that immediately crawled over his body, twisting and turning but never settling in one spot, and twisted his feet in front of him. His hands followed the same path. He was tied up. A different rope bound his hands and feet but there was a connecting rope to both of them.

Droplets formed on his forehead from strands of hair that had matted to his dewy skin. He felt clean and yet disgusted. He wasn't sure what happened after he went back to sleep, but he tried to push the idea of Murdoc touching and bathing him while he was unconscious.

His stomach interrupted the silence that hung in the room. Damn, I guess five or more days without food will do that to you. He thought as he went to untie the restraints that had chafed against his damp skin. After to ropes hit the floor he stood slowly and immediately needed to sit back down due to the spinning pressure that he felt in his head. "Come on body, work." He commanded.

As he let everything in the room stop spinning he took a glance at once danced around him. There was a bathtub that looked like it wasn't hooked up to anything, a space heater the sat in a small metal cage in the middle of the room that had a connecting cord to the caged off outlets and a small jar that contained paperclips by the head of his bed.

He thinks that I won't figure a way out or here when he gives me so much to work with? Why would he go through all of that with the cages when he gives me something I can use to pick the locks and he knows it?

He picked up the small jar of paper clips to begin working and a small, neon yellow sticky note drifted slowly towards the ground. At a closer look, it simply read: DON'T TOUCH.

Mac laughed. Like a sticky note will stop me. He twisted the top off with a pop and got to work limping his way over to the far wall.

He was about done unlocking the case around the outlet when the door swung open. Shit.

Murdoc took strides towards Mac and grabbed his hand violently to examine the contents of it and pried the bent paperclip out. "You saw the sticky note correct?"

"Yeah?" Mac began. "A sticky note means nothing when I've been kidnapped, by you no less."

"It means nothing?" Murdoc's dark eyes held a glint of light in them. "What about the ropes? Nothing as well? The cages and cases? The locks? All nothing to you?"

Mac just swallowed, somehow he knew what was coming. Without releasing Mac's hand he believed a swift kick to Mac's abdomen. Mac played on the ground with this arm still in Murdoc's clutches, he felt Murdoc's foot come down once again, and again, and again. Over and over.

Finally, once Mac relayed some silent message that he couldn't breathe Murdoc dropped his arm, that immediately when to shelter his gut form any more kicks and stomps. Murdoc crouched next to Mac's head and brushed the boy's hair over as he panted for breath. "Still mean nothing to you?" Murdoc patted Mac's shoulder and stood back up to loom over him. "When I tie you up that means I don't want you moving, regardless if you can move or get out or not. When I lock something up, I expect it to stay that way. When I tell you not to touch something, it should go untouched. If you do this we can avoid any excessive damage to that wonderful body and even more glorious brain of yours." Mac cringed again at compliments. "We can get along. What do you say MacGyver?" Murdoc waited for a response, but none came. Another decisive blow was dealt to the already struggling Mac. "Is that understood?"

Still nothing.

Just as Murdoc went to stop Mac again he heard such a pathetic sound from the man on the ground. "Y-yeah," Mac grunted out as he turned on his side to gain more protection of the more sensitive parts of his body.

"That's a good Boy Scout." Murdoc turned to leave the room. "I will be back in one minute. I want you to be back in that bed, lid on the paperclips, and the case to the outlet closed. If not, I will move you to the room to the left, which is a literal concrete box with a door. Very cold."

When the door closed Mac weight his options. He could either try to do something in the next fifty-five seconds and risk being locked up in a cold and probably damp room or do as he was told and figure something out later. With a heavy sigh, he decided to play along with Murdoc closing the case to the outlet and limping over to the bed to put the paperclip back and close the jar again.

In one minute Murdoc made his entrance like promised, but this time he had a plate of food and a fork. "Really, after that stunt you should get nothing and normally you will, but since you've been out for a few days and didn't know the rules yet, I forgive you, just this once." He warned.

Mac shook his head as Murdoc set the plate down at his feet and went to sit on top of the cage to watch him. "Eat."

"After my little 'stunt' I'm not hungry." Mac wasn't lying, his stomach hurt like hell and the thought of eating made him sick. He felt weak and cold. If he couldn't leave he just wanted to take the blanket and wrap it around himself.

"I said eat." Murdoc just sat there perched on the cage with his legs crossed, watching.

The term 'make me' tempted Mac's tongue, but he knew if he said that Murdoc would do it. "Not hungry."

"Doesn't matter if your hungry or not. Eat." Murdoc leaned forward to examine Mac's face better. Mac didn't move or even look at the plate.

Murdoc pulled his gun like a flash of light. "Don't move unless I tell you to, got it?" A slight nod was given from Mac. "Good."

He picked up the rope and instructed Mac how to hold his arms out while Murdoc tied them together.

"Thought you wanted me to eat? How's this supposed to work in your favor?" Mac said but partially already knew the answer.

Murdoc gave a slight smile. "Whether or not you like it, Angus, I do care about your health and cannot have you starving yourself. It's a wonder how Jack got you to eat sometimes."

"What?" Mac looked at Murdoc.

"Oh, I've seen the way Jack brings you food and you try to decline him," Murdoc smiles. "But he always puts on his famous Jackie Smile and you just give in. Now, I don't have that magic but I will certainly try."

"Please don't, it's just creepy." Mac scratched his arm against the ropes.

"Oh! MacGyver, I am touched!" Murdoc's smile died out. "I warned you. I asked you to eat! And you were rude!"

"W-what? No. Murdoc no." Mac tried to pull away put at that moment Murdoc grabbed his hair and pulled Mac's head back. "I said I don't want to."

"Well, your health comes first." Murdoc raised the fork to Mac's mouth and had it pushed away. "Stop it. As much as I would like to see you struggle, I have things to do."

The fork was raised once again, this time making an entrance in Mac's mouth. The metal ripped at his cheeks and scrapped and ground against his teeth. This happened again and again and again. When Mac would raise his bound arms to take a break he would be forced down and yelled at. His coughing was almost completely ignored and even sneered at. The taste of iron tingled on his tongue and

"No, no more." Mac eventually broke free and spring forward to keep his head out of reach from being grabbed again. His stomach hurt he probably had a few bruised organ, at least one broken rib if not more, and now some extra nausea to add to that.

"That's okay." Murdoc pushed the plate away and patted Mac's back and feel a light prick in his back.

Mac shot around. "Wha-?"

"It's time for us all to sleep. Night Angus." Murdoc picked up the plate and fork and made his way out the door.

"Shit." Mac laid down and wrapped the blanket around him in wait for the sedative to kick in and drag him back into the darkness. "Shit, Jack. What did I get myself into?" Jack, I need you…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What?" Matty said over the phone. It was late at night and she was the only one left in the building like often happens, looking over the city lights that bounced off of her face,

"Yeah, it's like she recognized the names and jumped on the opportunity. I'm not supposed to share any of this with you, Matilda. It's technically treason." Said the deep, male voice on the other end of the phone.

"I know, but like I said one of my agents had doubts about yours, and I promised that I would investigate." Matty turned towards the file of one Sirena Petrona, with black boxes over almost every word.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you her history, or completely."

"That's okay. I understand I was taking a risk too." Matty smiled, "Good night. Thank you again."


	11. Regrets

_Fuck it hurts._ Mac thought. He rolled to his side with a great effort and to his disappointment he saw Murdoc sitting there with a plate of what looked like scrambled eggs and a black duffle bag.

 

“Mornin’ sunshine!” Murdoc said boisterously, too loud for Mac’s sensitive ears. The drug was reeking havoc on his body. “Time to eat then we’ll get to play some more games!”

 

Mac felt nausea, a feeling he was getting all to used to. “Why don’t you just skip to the fun part, Murdoc? I know that’s the part you want.”

 

“No, well yes. But I would love to see you eat something as see how long you can keep it down as part of the game!”

 

Mac shook his head. He couldn’t believe this wasn’t just some huge nightmare, this was actually happening, Murdoc had captured him and most likely had another captive and from the car seat, he could use deductive reasoning to determine the age of his fellow hostage.

 

“You realize that when you shake your head it’s a general show of ‘no.’” Murdoc moved closer from where he was. “I see that as a sign of you refusing to eat again.”

 

Mac unconsciously ran his tongue over the sores he gained last night. He could almost taste the copper again. “That’s not what-”

 

“That’s what you already told me,” Murdoc said. “I want you to understand that when you show me a sign I take it very seriously.”

 

Within moments, Mac was reliving the same experience from the night before. Reopening the sores that had had no time to heal. Every time Murdoc would do to give Mac another bite he would rip Mac’s head back using his hair. He could feel every strand of his hair being pulled out in every new movement.

 

After the food had been choked down, Murdoc sat watching Mac already struggle to keep it down. With the extra bit of creepy Murdoc had he said. “Well, wasn’t that pleasant?”

 

“Not really.” Mac closed his eyes and swallowed, but it hurt too much to finish the action.

 

“It would have been easier to just-”

 

“You assumed.” Mac glared up at him from the mattress.

 

Murdoc laughed and pulled up the blanket and tossed it to the side. Mac immediately shrunk back from the cool draft that was created by Murdoc doing so. Murdoc bent down and grabbed Mac’s jaw, and then it happened.

  
Mac didn’t even see it but he sure felt it. A knife stabbing into his left leg and quickly leaving as fast as it entered. Mac let out a quick gasp not wanting to scream.

 

Murdoc looked Mac in the eyes. “Don’t interrupt me.” Murdoc stood up as he watched Mac scramble to put pressure on his new wound. “Next time it won’t just be a surface wound.”

 

Murdoc dug in his bag and through a found a white towel and threw it at Mac.

 

In response to Mac’s confused look, Murdoc simply said, “Don’t get too much blood on that. You're going to be sleeping there for a while.”  
  
_A while. There it is again._ Mac thought. “How long have I been here? Who else is here?” Mac rasped out,

 

“Usually I wouldn’t answer these questions,” Murdoc began. “But it's you MacGyver and you know how I can’t say no to you.”

 

“I doubt that.” A side eye from Murdoc let Mac know that was the wrong answer.

 

“Do you want to know or not?” Murdoc gave him the same look that he did back in the tunnels when he had asked Mac if he wanted help or to be left not taken care of.

 

“Yes,” Mac looked down at his leg that he had been applying pressure to and quickly added. “Please.”

 

“Look at that!” Murdoc happily applauded. “You’re learning.”

 

Mac became flush. He had never felt so humiliated as to listen to commands from this psycho. It would have been fine if Murdoc hadn’t have pointed that out Mac thought me might have been able to handle it. He bit his already sore tongue and held back what he wanted to say.

 

“Alright, alright.” He calmed himself down from laughing. “You’ve been with me for just about two weeks. That girl up there is a job of mine.”

 

“You’re going to kill her?”Mac looked at him shocked, completely skipping over the fact it had been two whole weeks. “I mean, I know you kill people for a living, but a little girl?!”

 

“Not her. Not right now, but when the right price is offered I will.”  
  
“Who is she?”   
  
“She a job. I don’t ask questions.” Murdoc said. “All I was told was to babysit her until I am given further instructions. That’s it. That’s all I am doing.”

 

“But why-?” He started.

 

“No more questions.” He waved off any further attempt at Mac questioning him.

 

They sat in silence for half an hour before either man even dared to speak a word.

 

“Soo, what’s your favorite color?” Murdoc said plainly.

 

“Really?” Mac was taken back by the other man's question. “My favorite color?”

 

“Yes. I have a pretty in-depth file about you, where you live, what has happened to you, your so-called family, psych reports, and what not,” Murdoc looked innocently. “But I don’t have the basics.”  
  
“Oh, here I thought you had all the answers.” He said sarcastically.

 

“See normally I would but I find some questions are better answered in person.”

 

Mac ignored the man and sat against the wall trying to keep eggs down.

 

“Ok then!” Murdoc stepped towards Mac again. “I see you must really want to get a taste of the rest of my tricks.”

 

“Do it.” Mac put on a brave face but he knew it was only going to make Murdoc want to break him more. “I won’t tell you where Cassian is!”

 

“Oh MacGyver, and that is what makes this so~ much fun.” Murdoc went to the door and pulled out a chair that already had some chains attached to it. “See, I think you're a masochist.”  
  
“What would give you that idea?” Mac swallowed hard and looked at the chair.   
  
“Oh, just the fact that you are one of the brightest minds to ever exist and yet you don’t prevent anything you know will happen.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“My escape.” Mac looked into Murdoc’s eyes and shivered. He didn’t like the was Murdoc was staring back. “You could have prevented it, and yet you didn’t.”

 

“So you're asking me to beef up on your security?”  
  
Murdoc lightly shook his head. “Not only did you let me escape but you kept me alive.”   
  
“I’m not the killer here.”   
  
“You keet me alive even when it means your so-called little family and your own safety is jeopardized by it,” Murdoc laughed. “You don’t have any good home security and you willing opened your door even though you don't know who’s on the other side.”   
  
“Just because I am trusting-”   
  
“No, I wouldn’t say trusting, more like risky.”

  
“I don’t expect a group of three to storm me whenever I open my door.”

 

“Yet you are a super secret agent with a great mind, who I am sure has many enemies. I’m surprised Matilda doesn’t have you under lock and keep.”

 

“Yeah I have enemies your one of them, and Matty doesn’t do that because she respects me.”  
  
“I’m hurt you could call us enemies.” Murdoc mockingly put one hand over his chest. “And Matty doesn’t do that, not because she respects you, but because she is afraid to lose a great tool to her arsenal.”   
  
“I’m not a tool.”   
  
“Angus, come on. Even you know the definition of a tool.”   
  
“Yeah.” Mac shrugged his shoulders or at least made a valid effort.

 

“What is it? In your own words.”  
  
“A tool is something that is designed to fit a certain purpose and to be used to do so.”   
  
“Bingo!”   
  
“I wasn’t designed to do anything.”   
  
“But they use you. Matty uses you. She is constantly putting you out in the line of fire to do her dirty work while she sits behind the big screen, quite comfortably.”

 

“That’s because she needs to.”  
  
“You really are clueless! What brought you and Jackie boy together?”   
  
“The army.”   
  
“Wrong. It was your skill. Your talents. Now, what brought Matilda to your Pheniox Foundation?”   
  
“We needed a new-”   
  
“Wrong. It was your skill. See without you there is no Foundation. Oh, how I can imagen Riley being hauled back off to her comfy little supermax cell, Jack retiring knowing that he lost his greatest asset, and poor little Wilt, losing his best friend and roommate. All to me.”

 

Mac clenched his teeth and began to slowly grind them. He wouldn’t let any of those things happen to his family.

 

“Oh, now I know their loves will be tough adjusting but they’ll get over you.” Murdoc took a stride forward and crouched down to rub Mac’s shoulder “But until they stop the search parties and start the funeral, you and I will have some fun. What do you say, Boy Scout?”

 

“I say you are a crazy son of a bi-” Before Mac could finish he felt a second wave of pain in his leg. Murdoc had dealt away with the white towel and burrowed a thumb in the fresh wound. He cupped his hand over his mouth and turned away from Murdoc, who was focused on the exact placement of his thumb.

 

“Well, that was fun!” Murdoc said gleefully pulling away, wiping the fresh hot blood on the towel adding to its collection of dark red spots. He immediately began to haul Mac up to his feet and over to the chair. “Next time, watch your language! Wouldn’t want little ears to hear it.”

 

“I don’t see any kids.” Mac tiredly said.

 

“No, not now, but you must know for our little guess and when I get Cassian back you’ll have to be especially careful.” Murdoc shook his head. “If you use that kind of language around him you might lose your tongue.”

 

Murdoc took the weary limbs of his victim and bound him with the chains effortlessly as if he did this on a weekly basis, which was probably the case.

  


Rough metal began to cut into Mac’s skin almost immediately and for some reason a feeling that he could only identify as regret crept up his body even though he could think of nothing he should regret.

 

“Let’s have some fun Boy Scout!” Murdoc began to cheerfully hum as Mac’s screams echoed through the room.


	12. Time

Mac tried relentlessly to put a mental calendar together to keep track of the days since Murdoc would not tell him. Many conversations would go on as such:

 

“You are smart, make a calendar.”   
  
“Out of what?”   
  
“Your brain cells or molecules.” Murdoc would laugh and continue with whatever heinous act he wanted to perform that day.

 

Mac had no way to tell time, no sense of what was night and what was day, he was just awake or asleep.

 

Some days Murdoc would come and stare awkwardly until the silence was broken then leave and not come until the next day. Other days he was not so fortunate. He had been beaten with no expense spared, Murdoc used his hands, feet, a bat, a book or two just to mock Mac. He had targeted Mac’s legs, feet, stomach, sides, arms, back, but not his hands or face. Mac didn’t dare question ‘why not’ either. He’d rather keep at least his hands intact. It’s easy to put a nose back in place and staple a head back together, but the tendons in hands were much different. 

 

On the worst days Murdoc would just sit and work his way into Mac’s head. The way he discounted all of the things Mac said with such sound logic, or it was sounding pretty solid to this point, drove him crazy. Murdoc articulated his words and constructed his sentences with such precision that even a surgeon would step aside to let Murdoc’s voice cut through the patient. 

 

At some point, Mac stopped arguing, stopped fighting, it was pointless. Murdoc wasn’t the one who was both physically and mentally exhausted to wits ends, but Mac never stopped trying to find a way out.

 

One attempt led Mac to  meet the little girl, but unfortunately, that meant it was daytime and Mac had set his internal clock to the wrong time. He had hoped it was in the middle of the night and they were both asleep. Mac’s plan involved going to the neighbors, if there were any, calling Matty and having her swoop in, but he didn’t make it that far. Mac’s first completely conscious meeting with the little girl was also his first meeting with the bat, who unlike the little girl continued to make reappearances in his daily life.

 

Another attempt had led to a brief handshake with a locked door and Murdoc behind him with the key. The key decided it was going to go to some rather dark places, such as burrowing deep into Mac’s thigh.

 

This last attempt felt much different though, like somehow, something different would transpire.

 

He had snatched the key from Murdoc’s pocket in their last...intimate...visit and made an electromagnet and somewhat of a pulse out of the other odds and ends he had been finding on all his last “failed” escape attempts. To Murdoc, that’s what they were, but to Mac, they were nothing more than small scavenger hunts or shopping trips for the things he needed. 

 

He had found copper wire, a pen, headphones, two batteries, the key, a purple crayon, a flashlight, and some duct tape. All of these things gave him countless more scars, but if it was going to get him out, it was worth it, he would take his entire body being scarred over being with Murdoc. From head to toe, if he must, which was probably going to happen either way.

 

This plan would allow both him and the girl to successfully escape. Mac had listened to her quiet humming each night on the other side of the door as she woke up to get water or to go to the bathroom, he just had to wait for that sign tonight, to grab her after picking the lock with the pen he had taken apart and scrapped for parts. After that he’d use the magnet to, not open the back door, to which the key went to, but to open the balcony door, he had only caught a glimpse of. Although typically, most doors would just need a good lock picking, although, this wasn’t a key, it was more of a tool to disarm the alarm system Murdoc always set before the house became quiet.

 

With the magnetic pulse directed with the speakers in the headphones he had one, two shots at best, to disable the alarms with the headphones before the speakers burst with the electromagnetic current and the over a surge of electricity created by the lack of control he had over how much power the batteries gave out in one charge.  _ One shot with fate, two with luck.  _ Mac thought.

 

Mac heard the faint and high pitch humming coming from down what was probably a hallway. Now. He sprang to action using the parts of the pen to open the door. It opened! Mac couldn’t help but smile just a little. He was feeling like it was going to be a two-shot kind of day.

 

He flew up the stairs as fast as his battered body would take him and met a child in a dark hallway, in any other circumstance Mac would think that she was creepy and eerie, hell, he still thought that. The girl’s pale complexion to match her even paler nightgown, and for god's sake, she was carrying an old and beaten teddy bear by the arm! Mac never related to a stuffed bear any more than at that moment right then.

 

“Hey,” He whispered and at that, she covered her mouth and shook her head. “It’s okay, we are going to get out and leave this place.”   
  
“I need to tell him that you got up!” She whispered back. “Or the ghost will cry again!”

 

Mac’s heart sank, he knew what she meant. “No.”

 

“Yes!” She stubbornly argued.

 

She turned around and started to go back down the hallway before Mac caught her. “Do you have a mom or dad?”   
  
“A mom and Yuka!” Even in the dark, a light lit in this little girl's eyes.

 

“Shhh.” He reminded her. “I can take you to see them. Just follow me.”

 

“Mommy says no talk to strangers and Uncle says so too.”

 

“Very smart. Here I have an idea. Why don’t we become friends?”   
  
“But I no know your name?”

 

“Mine is Mac.”   
  
“No. It’s not.”

 

“What?” he guided her towards the balcony with a hand on her back. “But it is.”   
  
“My name is Mac.” She said firmly. “Mommy says so.”   
  
“Shhh. Your mom and I will have to discuss who gets to be called Mac then.”

 

“Shhh.” She laughed. “You’re funny.”

 

As a glimmer of light fell through the glass as they moved closer to the balcony door, Little Mac saw Mac’s face in a true light.    
  
“Are you hurt?”   
  
“Yeah, really bad, and that’s why I need your help.”   
  
“Mommy can fix you.” She said. “She fixes people.” Mac guessed that her mom was a doctor or a nurse of some sort.

 

“It’s a deal as long as we manage get out of here okay?” He said working on the door.

 

“Deal.” She said as the door's alarm made a small clicking sound.

 

The alarm was off, the door was open, and they were out. _ I didn’t even need that second shot, hopefully, I can put that luck to use somewhere else.  _

 

It was snowing outside and Mac became instantly confused. As Mac checked both sides of the balcony and saw one side was a ten-foot drop and the other was three foot he was about to pick the obvious choice but then he heard a small voice.    
  
“Not that way,” she whispered and shut the door.

 

“What?” Mac raced over to make sure the door would be as quiet as possible. “Why not?”   
  
“Big hole, lots of water.” Of course, Murdoc would make it hard to leave.

 

Mac raced through what he could use to get out. Hard, but not impossible.  _ Murdoc wants to watch me attempt and fail. He wants to see how far I can get _ . Mac looked at the snow build up on the side of the balcony. It was about two inches with a thin layer of solid ice on the bottom. “How much do you weight?”   
  
“Forty pounds.” Mac gave her a quick lift and set her back down to check if that was true, his muscles were sore. She felt about forty pounds. Mac began doing the math perfectly in his head.

 

“I need you to do me a favor.”   
  
In moments she had been set down and instructed to feel around with her feet to determine where the water and the hole stopped. “My foot is cold.” She informed.

 

“Yeah, I know. Just a bit longer, okay?”

 

“Here!” She pointed at the ground. “There's dirt under here.”   
  
“Are you sure?” Mac whispered. “I mean did you-”   
  
“Mommy taught me how to feel the edge of river.” She began to hum again. “Mommy and Yuka said no icy river.”   
  
“Okay, I’m just going to have to take your word on it.” Mac waited for her to move out of the way and aimed left to where she had been standing before. 

 

A hard thud echoed in his own head, practically unheard from anyone else. “Let’s go.” She ushered to the side of the house, he looked around and saw nothing but white, black, and a dull grey-brown. White for snow. Black as the night. Grey-brown for the fence that encased them. 

“Hey wait!”

 

“No this way!” She grabbed Mac’s hand and lead him to the gate.   
  
“I have to make something to open the gate first.”   
  
“Would key work?”   
  
“Yes but I don’t have one.”   
  
“I do.”   
  
“What?”   
  
“I see him put it there always when we come and play.”   
  
A chill went down Mac’s spine, that wasn’t the result of the snow starting to fall again.  _ So when Murdoc is not tormenting me he is playing innocent little girl games, nice to know. _

 

Little Mac used her Little Mac hands to dig in the snow and bring up a metal item. She shakily handed it over to Big Mac. “I know. It’s really cold.” He said, grasping the key and encasing her hands to give her some warm. He stood up and used the key to unlock the gate.

 

The memory  of when Mac used the hydraulic hammer to open the doors in the tunnels flashed through his mind when  _ He _ appeared right in front of him.

 

His luck ran out. Snow lightly drifted past a dark character and Mac immediately froze. “No. No. No. No. No.” He repeated under his breath.

 

“What the hell are you thinking? Dragging a child out in the cold in the middle of the night?” Murdoc harshly pointed at the shivering figure huddled to Mac’s legs for warmth.

 

“You know the answer.”   
  
Murdoc ignored Mac for a moment and spoke to Little Mac. “Sweetie, are you cold?” With a gentle nod and one hand gesture from Murdoc she began to walk back over to her kidnapper.

 

“No!” Mac had been packing the snow as hard as he could. Now, most snowballs would shatter, split in half, or crumble apart in mid-air or upon contact, but when you had been an adult working a snowball since the balcony, it gets pretty compact. With the little force Mac had left a direct hit from the solid ice ball landed on Murdoc’s temple knocking him over. Mac grabbed Little Mac and hopped over Murdoc with his long clumsy legs.

 

“He’s a friend, he’s my uncle!” She pointed back as Mac ran forward.   
  
“I think he lied to you.” 

 

“No. He didn’t.”   
  
“Not another step MacGyver!” A familiar sound clicked into Mac’s ears. A gun. 

 

“This isn’t right.” He said not turning around.   
  
“What’s not right is you dragged a small child out in the cold just because you don’t like to play our games. Did you stop to ask if she wanted to leave?”   
  
“Shut up, Murdoc.”   
  
“No, you cannot make the demands here my friend. Set her down and walk slowly back towards me.”

 

“Murdo-” 

 

“Do what I said, Angus.” And Mac followed his orders.   
  
Little Mac looked up as he put her down. “Your name Angus? You lied on me.”

 

“No I only let my friends call me Mac, and I didn’t lie. He is a bad man. You cannot trust-”   
  
“Enough lying to her MacGyver.” Mac heard the small crunches of snow as Little Mac made her way towards Murdoc and louder ones as Murdoc walked closer. 

 

Mac stays completely still except the occasional head turn to survey his surrounding, though that , was pointless, too. He saw nothing but snow and black. No street lamps. Just an old pick up that looked like it hasn’t run in years.

 

Hot breath whispered in his frozen ears. “This one was a good attempt.” Mac anticipated a prick from a syringe, a kick to his legs, but neither of those things happened yet. “But not good enough.” A violent motion whipped Mac around and marched him through the snow back towards the front of the house. 

 

Murdoc led both Little Mac and Mac through the house and put them in their respective rooms. After making sure that Little Mac was plenty warm and completely asleep it was time to make sure that Mac would never make such a stupid attempt again.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Mac waited in the small room once again, but this time the small space heater and the blanket had both been taken. He was freezing. He was tired and sore all over, and all he could think was:  _ Shit.  _

 

Moments passed and Murdoc finally entered. “How far did you think that one would get you?”   
  
“It was worth a-”   
  
“Is it really? You might not be saying that in the morning.”   
  
“What?”   
  
“You dragged a little girl out in the snow, in the middle of the night, in a nightgown! You had no real plan and nowhere to go! You would have made her freeze to death by the time someone actually found you if it weren’t for me.”   
  
“I would have made something, found somewhere to go,” Mac argued. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you would just let us go!”   
  
“You know that I need her for a job, and you also know that you are too precious for me to just let go. I worked too hard for you to go and screw everything up now.”   
  
“You don’t care about her or me! You’re sick and -”   
  
“Shut up and go to sleep.” Murdoc raised his gun and a small pop went off.

 

“No!” But it was too late. It had already entered his body. Although it wasn’t a bullet it still had the pressure behind it like one. 

 

Mac quickly pulled the tranquilizer dart out of his chest and threw it to the ground. He looked back up at Murdoc as he was already on his way out of the door. 

 

There was so much rage built up within Mac. Mac stood up and went to pointlessly follow Murdoc. Before he could make it to him, Murdoc had turned around and stopped Mac with just a stare in his general direction.

 

A brief moment of dizziness waved over his body and the cold ground greeted him with unwelcoming intentions.   
  


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Jack sat at Mac’s house, staring at Boz who was constantly offering him something, for what felt like hours and it probably was really late, when Rena slowly walked in with Kage. “Sup ladies?”   
  
“Well, Kage dragged me over here.” Rena unnecessarily defended herself. 

 

“I came over to check up on you and I brought Sirena as back up.” Kage made her way to Boz who was in the kitchen. The two began to talk in meaningless chatter.

 

“How’s it holding up here?” Rena gestured towards the living room. She had never been in Mac’s house yet and as homy as it was, it gave her an unwelcoming feeling with the main party host missing.

 

“If Bozer would stop treatin’ me like I didn’t already practically live here it’d be fine,” Jack shook his head. “And as long as we found Mac. How you doin’ girl? Looks like you’ve been sleeping as good as me.”   
  
Rena almost crumbled. “Not good, Jack. Not good at all. I need her back.” She whispered as if to not disturb the kitchen conversation.

 

“I know exactly how you feel. Matty wants us in early tomorrow, you should figure out where you’re gonna sleep.”   
  
“I’ll go to back to my motel room now,” Rena said as if she was just asked to leave.   
  
“Nope, not what I said.” Jack pointed to a throw pillow on the couch. “You’re already here might as well get comfy, besides you don’t have a taxi.”

 

“I can’t Jack...” Realizing there was a mention of a taxi somewhere in Jack’s last statement she frowned. “Wait. What?”   
  
“Now, I have no idea why Kage would drop you off here and plan on leaving without you other than to have a slumber party.”   
  
“She did what?” Rena scanned the kitchen just to find Boz mindlessly scrubbing away, no Kage. 

 

“She told me today that she could see you weren’t sleeping and that you needed some serious rest and she had a plan to give it to you. Then she shows up at the hellish hour of-” Jack checked the nearest clock. “-10:36 pm. What would you piece together?”   
  
“A trap.” Rena scald.

 

“What?”   
  
“Or a babysitter.” Rena grabbed the pillow. “Seems I’m stranded. What are my options?”   
  
“Floor, couch, or we could revolt against Boz and fight for the bed.”   
  
“I’ll take the floor. Seems like it will take fewer complications.”   
  
“Yeah, if you don’t consider your back a complication.”   
  
“I’m young. I’ll live.” She said calmly.   
  
“But you’re gonna have to take a lot of blankets.” Said Jack, as if negotiating a major deal.

 

“Better be a lot of blankets.” She said, accepting his proposition with finesse.

 

Within moments of silence and lots and lots of blankets, the three were settled into their respective positions, Bozer in his room, Jack on the couch, and Rena on the floor nearby. Darkness continued to fill the house as the night perpetually fell, waiting for the morning to catch it and repeat its cycle in fourteen more hours.

 

Then an old husky voice whispered from seemingly nowhere. “Hey, Ren.”   
  
“Hmm.”

 

“This house is his house.”   
  
“Yes Jack, I read the file. Bozer and Mac share this house.”   
  
“They had the nerve to come into  _ his _ house and take  _ him _ from  _ his _ safe spot.”

 

“I know it must be hard.” Rena began to imagine where Macalynn was when she was taken. The nursery in their apartment? The daycare? The park? A car?   
  
“I see him doin’ his thing, fixing the fridge like he was, and armed men comin’ in and ruining everything! I see it happen so many different ways. They come in from the back, the front, god, the windows.”   
  
“Jack.” Rena could only manage to speak his name as an offer of her condolences.

 

Nothing was spoken for some more moments and the pair drifted off to sleep leaving the vicious cycle of light and dark to battle another day.


	13. Connections

The morning came and it felt like a car crash for Mac. He was so cold. He spent the night on the cold concrete with no space heater and no blanket. Mac pushed himself off the ground and began scooting over towards the mattress. He looked up an unfamiliar set of three poles and froze.

 

It was a tripod and Mac didn’t think that it was Murdoc’s new security system. The camera was perched on the top and off. Mac turned around to see that the tripod had some friends, two more to be exact. Mac looked down at his feet and noticed that a rope was loosely draped around his ankles. Upon seeing this he stopped for a brief second and a voice appeared in his head:  _ “When I tie you up that means I don't want you moving, regardless if you can move or get out or not.” _

 

_ Damn it. Something so suggestive as a rope and I freeze up? He didn’t tie me up-  _ He interrupted his own thoughts

 

_ It’s a sign. Stay put. He’s showing you his intentions and what he wants from you.  _

 

_ Yeah but I don’t have to listen-  _

 

_ The bat.  _ He reminded himself.

 

_ No. That’s not it! Not again. I have to do something, maybe I could turn the tripods into a- _

 

_ Stop it! You're just going to get hurt! _

 

In the midst of his mental argument, Murdoc strode in with confidence. Mac looked over him, instead of the normal attire of black sweats and a black sweatshirt or a white T and jeans, Murdoc was in his leather trench coat, black pants and black gloves again and he had something else with him. More panic arose in Mac’s chest as he put together what Murdoc was carrying. A long handle extended from his gloves to make way for a heavy metal brick at the end of the stick. A sledgehammer.

 

Murdoc said nothing but silently watched the shivering and scared Mac in the middle of the cameras as he wandered around turning them on and messing around with the settings a bit.   
  
Once he was done he finally spoke. “I am going to enjoy this.”   
  
“What? No. Murdoc. Don’t. Do. This.” Mac tried to control how much he was shivering but to no avail if anything he made it worse.

 

“This is your fault. But you know what I am going to enjoy more than your screams?”   
  
“Murdoc. No.”

 

Ignoring Mac and stuck in his own world of fantasies he continued. “Imagining what their faces will look like when they hear them too.”   
  
Mac’s heart sank.  _ They can’t see me like this. No. No. No. This can’t be happening...Is he finally going to just kill me already? No, I am not that lucky. _

 

“So smile for the camera~!”   
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Matty stood in the front of the War Room as everyone shuffled in, taking note of the grim look on her face.

 

“What is it, Matty? What did we find?” Jack asked before everyone could settle into a spot.

 

“Sadly Jack, that’s the reason we are here today.”   
  
“What does that mean?” Rena spoke up and let Jack process the possibilities.

 

“It means that there have been no new developments in Mac’s case and the people pulling the strings want to cut them.”

 

“They don’t want us looking for Mac?”   
  


“Yes, they don’t want us wasting power on one agent, and Sirena’s boss wants her back ASAP. He says if the case is cold she needs to focus on getting back to missions.”   
  
Rena laughed. “I’m sorry.’Wasting power on one agent?’ He’s the best of the best, I feel he deserves some help from time to time. And: ‘Focus on missions?’ Like hell, I will. My kid’s still missing. I’m not doing anything until I get both of them back where they belong.”

 

“She’s right Matty, we can’t do missions without Mac. That kid has saved our asses more times than I can count.” Jack refused to look up at anyone.

 

“You can and you’ll have to. I have to pull all Phoenix power at noon today and send Sirena back to Vagas if we don’t have any new leads that at least tells us he’s alive.” Matty sighed. “Now that doesn’t stop you from looking on your own time but you have to do it with volunteers and off the books.”

 

“He is alive, Matty!” Jack stood up baring his face to Matty as the first tear fell. “That kid has been through wor- a lot! He’s a fighter!”   
  
“I’m sorry Jack. Sirena I’m sorry as-” There was a click in the background as the screens came to live.

 

“Hello, Matilda, Jackie Boy, Riley, Wilt, and Sammy Sam! How lovely it is to be here today!” Matty signaled Riley to trace the signal. Everyone could hear Jack start to swear in every language he knew how to.

 

Murdoc sat in three different views on the screen, holding a sledgehammer, with Mac laying on the floor looking like he was trying to catch his breath.

 

“As this is pre-recorded I cannot hear or see you. And I am sure Riley is already typing away, trying desperately to find us.” A Cheshire smile spread across the screens. “Don’t. I have taken lots of steps to make sure that you’ll be far, far away from us at all times.”   
  
“He can’t do what I think he's going to do to Mac. Matty, we have to-” Boz started.

 

“Whatever we’re about to see has already been done Bozer,” Rena said coldly not taking her eyes off of the screens.

 

Jack looked at Rena and watched her eyes flick between views. Something was off. Way off. He couldn’t look but he had to. He had to do it for Mac, but why was she so intent on watching it?

 

“Bozer, if it’s too much…” Rena suggested but Bozer shook his head. “Okay.”

 

The team watched Murdoc position himself over Mac and kick him once to get him disoriented. “What’s about to happen is his fault, you see he tried something he shouldn’t have.” Murdoc stopped to admire the struggling boy beneath him. “Now I have to make sure he won’t try it again.”

 

“Snow!” Mac gasped. 

 

“Shut up.” Murdoc kicked him again.

 

“Three inches! Last-” Another foot came down.

 

Mac laid still for a moment and looked at Murdoc, who raised the hammer above his head, with desperate eyes. Mac sheltered his head and neck with his arms as it began to come down.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Mac’s heart was beating in his head and his body was screaming to run but an invisible force kept him still. He wanted to run, scream, kick, and just get out of the way if nothing else, but he didn’t. He watched Murdoc as he lifted the hammer above his head and brought it down. 

 

The descent was slow and agonizing because he knew where it would land. He tried to brace himself, but no one could prepare for  _ this. _

 

He felt his body jolt upon the impact and his bones shatter under the combined weight and force. He knew he was screaming but he couldn't focus enough to hear it. It was a blur of red and pain. Orange lights flashed before his eyes, performing a dance before leaving again. He felt the first hot tear making its way down his face and onto the cold ground.

 

He was still screaming and he could hear it this time. He hated his own voice. It was the worst sound in the world. He wanted to rip out his own vocal cords or make his eardrums burst, which would both be equally hard. It takes a lot of inward and outward forces acting against each other to cause enough damage to the vocal cords that would permanently take away the ability to make sounds. On the other hand getting 150 decibels of sound is equally as painful but more permanent.

 

Mac waved away those distractions and immediately went to grab for his left leg when Murdoc’s voice began to come into clarity. “...not done...move your hands...want me to crush them too.”

 

Mac straightened out and began to reach for something, anything! It came down again, just a little bit above the first impact. 

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

The sledgehammer was heavy but lifting it over his shoulder was really gratifying and it was even more gratifying as he brought it back down.    
  
The grip Murdoc had on the hammer allowed him to feel everything that happened when he brought it down. The bones shattering into millions of little pieces under the flesh and muscle that gave way for the hammer. His sweet, sweet screams filled the air of the room and Murdoc wished that he could hear Mac’s voice over and over again.

 

“He has such a lovely voice!” Murdoc exclaimed to the cameras.

 

He watched Mac struggle to give his leg some relief which made him want to smash every part of his body, but he needed to restrain himself for the audience. “Hey. Hey, I’m not done yet, so you’d better move your hands.” Murdoc laughed. “Unless you  _ really _ want me to crush them too.”

 

Murdoc watched the boy hopelessly reach for something to hold on to and brace himself for the next blow, how foolish of him.  _ Nothing is going to help you, Angus.  _ Murdoc thought to himself.

 

The next blow was even more satisfying. A fresh new _ crunch _ of bone and a fresh new note of blood-curdling screams was music  to his ears. _ How wonderful. I bet you only scream like this for me. _

 

The figure on the ground shivered and screamed and kicked out with his uninjured leg before going limp from exhaustion, not unconscious, just still. The room was silent beside some whimpers and heavy breathing.

 

“See ya’ guys later!” Murdoc walked around the room and began to turn the cameras off one by one, shutting off the one that is facing Mac directly as the last one on purpose.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

“How’s that for proof of life Matty?” Kage asked and began to head out the room for Boz who had already left it.

 

Matty stood speechless. Rena made her way over to Riley who was crying. She whispered a few things and rubbed her back. “Do that for me okay, Riley? It’s important.”   
  
“What?” Jack already was in tears and didn’t care who was looking anymore. “What’s important?”   
  
“MacGyver said ‘snow,’ ‘three inches,’ and what I can only assume was ‘last night.’ Which can help us determine areas that have had three inches of snow in the last three days.”

 

“No, make it the last day.” Jack walked over to Riley and rubbed her other shoulder. “Knowing that sick bastard, he’d want to share this video with us as soon as he could. Counting that Matty had us come in early today like she does every Friday, he’s been counting on sharing this with all of us. But he was telling the truth when he said it was pre-recorded, he didn’t address you and he loves newcomers. Ask Kage, she got a bullet to the vest.”    
  
“Yeah, but I couldn’t track it! I couldn’t find where it was coming from, I got way too many signals from all over the world. Russia, Japan, the US, all of it! It’s- I- I can’t!”

 

“Hey, calm down.” Rena bent down to meet Riley. “He already told us we wouldn’t be able to track it and MacGyver did give us clues to go off of.”

 

“But what if it’s anywhere in the world! I won’t be able to track them then!” Riley closed her laptop and took a moment. “What about you? You already said that you wanted your kid back. Where are your leads?”

 

Rena had a blank expression painted on her face. 

 

“Riley!” Matty called. “Use what Agent Petrona told you to and stop interrogating her.”   
  
“Yes, ma’am.” Riley opened her laptop again mindlessly. “Sorry Sirena.”   
  
A distance had been placed between the two in those last two words. Rena had been particularly close with Jack, but no real bond was formed between her and any other agent in that room. She got along with Bozer and Jill quite fine, Riley and her never talked much, and both Kage and Rena wouldn’t really mind if they forgot to say goodbye. Jack was different. Jack made Rena feel vulnerable and usually if she got that feeling from someone she’d cut them out of her life and push them away, but in Jack’s case, she welcomed it. She needed it, for now anyway. Soon enough she’d get Mac and her daughter back and then she’d leave. She would most likely never see Jack again, but even that hurt. She thoroughly enjoyed his company and wished she had someone like him in her life, someone who felt the same pain as she did and would watch her back when things got tough.  _ Maybe that’s what a parent is in my line of work, or maybe that’s just family?  _ She thought. 

 

Rena had just watched that man and the rest of his team watch someone they considered family get hurt, they shed tears and endured his pain not out of pleasure, but out of love, respect, and hatred for the sick bastard that did it to them. It wasn’t just Mac’s pain they all watched, it was everyone’s pain. Mac got his leg smashed, but they put their hearts through the same pain. Rena watched out of respect and to have an outside set of eyes. Because she had no psychological attachment to the blond agent, she was able to watch with eyes that weren’t clouded with emotion.

 

The attachment Rena had to Mac was curiosity, respect, and pure interest, not a brotherly bond that Riley and Bozer seemed to have and most definitely not a motherly or fatherly love that Matty or Jack held. Hell, Kage had more of an emotional connection to him and Rena was skeptical that she even had real emotions. Kage tried to hide certain emotions and fake others. If you were an expert interrogator you naturally and probably even unknowingly gained that trait, but Rena saw right through it and Kage saw it right back. 

 

As a Rena sighed outwardly she thought,  _ How long can I keep this from them? Or more importantly Jack? _

 

_ _______________________________ _

  
AN: Hey guys! I’m trying something new with my writing! I finally got a much-needed beta reader so the chapters from here on are going to be a lot smoother! I am going to start letting you see a bit more into the minds of our favorite characters, all of them! And yes, that also means our favorite little psycho, Murdoc! (Especially him! OuO) As the story progresses seeing into Mac’s mind will be necessary! You will get both what is happening on the outside and another shot from the inside, so if things seem repetitive that’s why. I didn’t stay up too late reading/writing fanfiction again and start redoing scenes and just get them mixed up. Let me know what you guys think about my new style and give a big thanks to my Beta Reader: Myrabella on fanfiction . net!!!!!!!!!!


	14. Shattered

Mac laid in the middle of the room, watching Murdoc put away his cameras through his tears. He didn’t dare move, not after  _ that _ . His leg hurt too much, more than it should. He wanted to sleep so badly, if he’s learned anything during his visit with Murdoc, then it’s that pain makes you exhausted. He knew that to begin with, but he learned it too well, he felt like was about done with this lesson.

 

_ Now that bat is the least of my worries. _

 

_ Shut up! No, no, no. Murdoc sent that video to Jack and Matty, Riley will track it! _

 

_ No! Didn’t you listen? They won’t find you! You’re stuck here with him, it’s all your fault! If you had been more careful last night- _

 

_ He planned this. He was waiting for a moment to strike. The moment I slipped up and he had an excuse...this isn’t on me. _

 

_ But it is. _

 

These mental arguments of his were becoming more frequent and more and more aggressive. He could barely tell which one was actually him, the hopeful one or the realistic one, but he wasn’t about to have that “who’s the real Mac” moment with himself. 

 

He was lost in his own thoughts and didn’t snap out of it until Murdoc came back in his room and began moving him. Mac cried out. “Stop!” He pleaded. “Please, just leave me alone!” He could feel the broken and shattered bones grinding up against each other and cutting against the bruised muscles. 

 

When Murdoc ignored him he began to shake his head viciously.  _ It hurts!  _ He wasn’t sure if he’d said that out loud or just in his head. The pain washed up against his leg like tidal waves crashing and tripling up the rest of his body. He was prepared to cut it off. Limit his mobility to remove the years of pain to come, his leg was always going to be an issue either way. It was always going to slow him down, slow his team down if he ever made it back.

 

The movement stopped. Murdoc had sat him down and laid Mac’s head on his lap and began to brush his hair out of his face. “This was your fault. If you hadn’t tried to run, there’d be no need to hurt you.” Murdoc wiped away Mac’s tears of pain, Mac shied away. “I wouldn’t have punished you so severely if you hadn’t put both yourself and her at risk. You were so foolish.”   
  
Murdoc’s voice was so tender, careful, and almost fatherly. “I won’t let you hurt yourself or that child, I had to do this. You understand?”   
  
Mac still didn’t move or make any sound that wasn’t related to pain. “I hurt you to keep you from hurting yourself, it’s your fault. I couldn’t just keep allowing you to think it was okay for you to do that. I just need you to learn. Okay?”

 

Murdoc reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of pills. “It’s not much but if you’re good I will give you some low dose painkillers.” Murdoc tucked them back in his pocket and continued to brush his hair. “Alright then, I’ll go get-”   
  
“Shut up,” Mac whined.   
  
“Excuse me?” Murdoc gently caressed the side of his face with his thumb. “Dear Angus, you’re in a lot of pain. I just-”

 

“Drop it.” Mac jerked his head away from Murdoc. “People who ‘care’ don’t throw a sledgehammer to another person’s leg and then act gentle and like you actually had their best intentions at heart.”

 

“Well, as you have been saying,” Murdoc coyly smiled. “‘Worth a try.’” Murdoc’s whole demeanour changed back to the man with the hammer raised over his shoulder.

 

For a brief moment Mac almost fell for it, that was before he’d realized that Murdoc still didn’t have a heart. Nothing has changed. Mac’s cognitive abilities weren’t slowing down when it came to Murdoc, he was listening to what he had to say and not just ignoring it. Especially when it was  about Jack. Murdoc would drone on about how damaged he’d be, that he would be more trouble than he’s worth, he’ll get them both killed, and Mac would never be able to protect Jack.

Murdoc moved from underneath Mac’s head and slid his hand down the boy’s side meeting his thigh. “I imagine anything I do to your leg now will be quite painful.” 

 

Mac knew Murdoc was going to lap up every moment of this, he just had to endure.  _ Endure? Isn’t that what you have been doing for the last- what has it been? A month now? How much longer are you going to  _ endure  _ him? Just give in, make everyone's life better. _

 

_ Jack will think I am weak if I give in. I can’t do that to them, I have to be strong. _

 

_ You are weak. You have always been weak, He is just showing you that. Give in.  _

 

_ No.  _ Even his own voice sounded weak in his head _. I can’t. _

 

_ Can’t or just won’t. There are a lot of things you can do but won’t. For example carry a gun. If you carried a gun, you would have had many opportunities to kill Him, but you don’t. _

 

_ I’m not a murderer. _

 

_ But Jack is. You make him one. Besides a gun isn’t that much different from an explosion. One bullet kills one, maybe two people if you're lucky, but an explosion can kill many more. It can level blocks of cities. You can mix the chemicals wrong and kill people with a backfired explosion, a gun is less likely to jam than a brain. _

 

_ I trust myself to get it right. _

 

_ How can you trust yourself? How can you do that when you are weak? You just sit here and let everyone else get their hands dirty while you look innocent, you know the truth though. _

 

“Stop!” Mac screamed and threw his hands over his ears. 

 

Murdoc laughed. “What was that?”   
  
“Leave me alone!” Mac was in his own world, completely ignoring Murdoc and beginning to  chant. “That’s not...I’m not...no...I’m not...not true…”   
  
A scream, his own scream, interrupted his thoughts. “Don’t ignore me.” He heard.   
  
“What?” Mac cried out again as he determined what made him scream in the first place. Murdoc had both his hands pressed firmly against Mac’s lower leg. “Ah~! Let go!”

 

“Not until you truthfully tell me what  _ that _ was.” Murdoc began using his body weight to add more pressure.

 

Another painful cry. “What was what?!” Mac was truly unaware that he began talking out loud.

 

“Fine, fine.” Murdoc used his upper body to essentially ‘bounce’ on Mac’s leg. “Have it your way.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mac tried to push Murdoc off of his body but he couldn’t even raise his head, so instead, he laid there with tears of pain finding their own path down each side of Mac’s face. “Please…”

 

“Pathetic,” Murdoc said, Mac’s stomach sank.  _ Pathetic? No. That’s not true, I’m not...but you are. You disappoint Him. _

 

Mac’s lower lip quivered. “No.” He swallowed hard and looked around, but Murdoc was gone. He left nothing behind to tell him, that that whole ordeal just took place, nothing but the pain that was.

 

“I’m not.” He whispered.

 

_ But you are. _

 

The cold was getting to him, after being in the snow, in the middle of winter, with no real protection. On top of that, to come back to an equally freezing concrete box with no blanket or source of heat, was asking for hypothermic shock. Mac began to list all of the symptoms of hypothermic shock in his head to drown out everything else, and part of those symptoms included delirium. _ That must be it, there’s no way I am going crazy.  _

 

I _ don’t know, maybe you are more like him than you thought. _ Mac heard himself laugh in his own head. His own freaking head. He’d called himself crazy and now he is mentally laughing.  _ Just delirium,  _ he tried to remind himself.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Boz stood outside in the hall and repeated “Holy shit. No, Mac. No.” Until Kage caught up with him. 

 

“Hey,” Kage’s auzzie voice cut through Boz’s panic attack. “It’s going to be okay. We will find them.”

 

“No Kage!” Boz had that sad puppy dog look in his eyes. “Not this time, I don’t think even if we get him back he’s gonna be okay! You saw what just happened.”

 

“Bones heal Bozer.”   
  
“But brains are a different story, especially his brain! He gets stuck up there even with his family around him!” Boz shook his head. “What do you think will happen when Murdoc gets up there with him too?”   
  
“I’ve seen this before Bozer, plenty of times-”   
  
“You haven’t seen Mac!” Boz was not going to take any wise sage advice from Kage. “You’ve seen this and you’ve seen that! But you haven’t ever seen someone like Mac! You barely know him! He is my best friend and I had to see him in pain after not seeing him for a month! Mac is different Kage! You don’t have the faintest idea what he can get like!” Boz wasn’t done with Kage yet.

 

“No offense and I know you got more training tucked under your belt than me but there’s only one other person who knows Mac and how his brain works as well as I do and that is Jack! You know nothing! You aren’t a Mac-Expert!”   
  


“Most people react the same in those types of situations Bozer! I am trained-”   
  
“Mac isn’t most people!” Bozer screamed in the hallways with tears in his eyes. 

 

Jill ignored what was happening in the hallway and briskly walked past the pair and through the double doors of the War Room with a tablet in hand. The moment she walked in everyone went quiet as they saw her distressed look. “It’s everywhere. Mac...he’s...oh my god, Matty…”   
  
Rena rushed over to Jill because she looked like she was going to faint. “Hey, it’s okay. Take a seat if you need one.” Rena said with one hand on her back and the other lightly holding her forearm.

 

“No, no. I am fine.” Jill said as she passed the tablet to Matty. “It’s on every device that’s linked to the building's network. That includes the wifi.” She pulled out her smartphone to show the same image of Mac laying helplessly under the hammer.

 

“Riley figure out how he did that, there’s no way he can get into the secured wifi signal and all the fire wall’s main systems or the core processor of each device without leaving a traceable network trail. Also, check the Nexeton-”

 

Riley and Jack spoke at the same time. “English Rena, honey.” “Already on it.”

 

“What the hell is a Nexeton?” Said Jack, like it was a robot, planning  to take over the world.   
  
This time Riley and Rena were in sync. “It’s a new system to corrupt all files and replace them with a new one made by…” Both girls stopped as they realized a) they were talking at the same time and b) no one really cared they just wanted a distraction from the same video that they had watched a minute before.

 

Riley’s vicious typing stopped after a minute and she slammed her hand on her keyboard. “Why is he making this so damned hard?!”

 

“Is it the Nexeton?”   
  
“No, I know how to deal with that but it seems to be his own version of it...It’s just too hard to decrypt! It will take hours to do this!”

 

“Then focus on the next best lead, Riley. Don’t stress yourself out too much.” Matty said trying to muffle the screams coming from the tablet.

 

An idea dawned on Rena. “Wait for a second, Riley?”   
  
“Yeah?” 

 

“Your laptop isn’t displaying that video is it?”   
  
“No!” Riley smiled as if she knew what Rena was inferring to. “You're a genius!”

 

“I was just curious, not...you know what, okay. Thank you.” Rena looked at her curiously. “But seriously, if you were able to get an idea from that, then you are the one who is smart here.”

 

Jill still stood in the middle of the room, “What do I tell people? Especially the tech department?”   
  
Riley stood up with the laptop. “That it will be gone in about 38 seconds.”   
  
“Nice work Riley,” Matty said. “Jill I am so sorry all of  you guys had to see that. What else do you need? I feel like there is something else you’re not telling me.”   
  
“Bozer is kinda yelling at Kage for something about Mac and brains.” 

 

“He’s what?” Matty said in disbelief. “Our Bozer is yelling?”

 

“Yes, at Kage.” Jill turned and quickly exited as to not become more involved.

 

“Jack, go handle that. Riley, make sure that video is down and our networks are resecured. Then make sure that you follow any trail that leads back to Murdoc or an associate. We have found out he has been working with several people on this.” Matty waited for nods from each agent, then turned to Rena. “Ms. Petrona you and I need to have a word about the details of you taking this case since it seems like you will be with us for a while longer.”   
  
“Where and when?” She asked nervously. “You know I can’t say-”   
  
“Interrogation room. Now.” Matty walked out of the room and Rena obediently followed.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

The pair sat across from each other in a blue-tinted room. “Mind telling me about this?” Matty slid over a file that contained more than just black marks where the classified informations were.

 

“How did you get this?” Rena asked panicked.

 

“I pulled a few strings. How long were you going to keep this a secret?”   
  
“It’s classified, Matty.” She straightened up. “I couldn’t share it.”   
  
“Not to me, not anymore. So, why don’t you start talking?”

 

“I can’t. How did you get this?”

 

“Strings. I answered your questions, now you answer mine.” 

  
  
“The same strings that wanted to cut Mac’s case?”

 

“I have lots of strings. Talk.”

 

“Not yet.” Rena shook her head. “I’d rather have Jack here for that.”

  
“If you tell the right story here, you’ll be lucky if you step another foot in California!”   
  


“That’s not going to work on me, Matty.” Rena’s eyes still didn’t waver. “The time hasn’t come yet...”   
  
“Time is a social contract, made to keep count of the intervals of life separate from one another. And that's what you’re going to be if you don’t talk. I’m going to separate you from my team and you're not going near Mac’s file photo again if you don’t say the right things in here, and you better make it believable.”

 

“Fine Matty, but only the basics.”

 

__________________________________________

 

AN: Personally I have never really believed that Kage belonged within the MacGyver series, I mean she added a new hint of a shiny new toy, but she became quite disappointing. Sorry if you disagree but Kage is not my favorite. In fact, Kage ranks below Thornton, she was cool at first but then she BETRAYED us. Enjoy. Tell me what you think so far. There is still quite a ways before Mac gets rescued though so hang tight!


	15. Left

Mac shivered. He had been on the floor, unmoving, since it was too painful to attempt to move. It felt like hours since Murdoc had been in the room. He was going into hypothermic shock and he could feel it. He was going to keep shaking until even that stopped producing enough heat to keep his body temperature up. He needed to move around but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He racked his head, trying to figure out what else he could do. Nothing. He needed to get off of the floor and on to the mattress before he stopped shivering because then he would be in big trouble. The room would still be chilly but at least he’d be off of the floor.

 

_ Come on. Get it over with _ . Mac tried to bully himself into moving and the first step would be to sit up.

 

As he sat up the muscles in his leg tightened and his leg twitched uncontrollably. Mac panted heavily as he dragged himself backward with his arms, grunting and crying out with every movement. As much pain as it brought, he needed to move to keep himself warm. He needed to survive. His leg started to become progressively warmer until it burned as if being engulfed in flames. It began to feel like his leg was on fire while the rest of his body was freezing.

 

Mac laid on his back to take in every sensation for just a minute, he was so tired. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep, but he had to warm up first. He dragged on.

 

He had just reached the mattress when Murdoc came in. He froze. Murdoc had his black bag in his hand. Mac could feel a hot tear running down his face out of pure fear and pain.  _ Hasn’t he done enough? He broke my leg! Can’t I have a break? No, because I am not that lucky.  _

 

Mac quickly wiped it away before Murdoc approached him. There was a loud thud as Murdoc dropped his bag down next to Mac. It didn’t clang with metal torture instruments or chains, there was a sound of plastic, paper and something soft. Mac knew what that meant. He knew it was necessary but he still wasn’t really looking forward to it. 

 

Murdoc stood over Mac just watching him, but Mac refused to look up at him just staring hatefully ahead. “Hey.” Murdoc nudged Mac’s bad leg gently.

 

Mac hissed inwards at the pain of the movement but said nothing.

 

“I’m going to put you on the mattress.” Murdoc crouched and examined  Mac’s facial expression. “Is...that okay? I mean I think that’s what you were doing anyway.”   
  
Mac was taken back by Murdoc asking if it was okay by him to do something. Mac still said nothing.  _ It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act. _ Mac chanted.

 

“I mean you could stay on the floor, but the mattress is a bit warmer.” Murdoc waved his hand in front of Mac’s face. “It’s up to you. I don’t care where we do this.”   
  
“Do what?” Mac stared ahead fighting the urge to look at the black bag. He knew what Murdoc was planning.

 

“Fix you up.” Murdoc’s voice was soothing and calm.   _ It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act. _ “You were trying to get up on the mattress, right?”

 

Nothing.

 

“Angus.” Murdoc directed Mac’s eyes to his own with his finger. “Correct?”  
  
“Yeah,” Mac gave up. It was pointless. _It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act._   
  
“I’m going to help you finish what you started then, alright?” Murdoc raised an eyebrow.   _It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act._

 

“Yeah,” Mac repeated without thinking about what that actually meant.

 

“Alright. I’m going to slide on arm under your legs and lift you up. I’ll try and make it quick.” A thought crossed Mac’s mind.  _ Did Murdoc have a split personality? He is being too nice. No. It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act. _

 

“Ready?” Murdoc moved one arm towards the underneath of Mac’s knees, but he still got no answer. “Alright, here I go.” He warned.

 

Mac gasped as Murdoc lifted him. The pain spiked and he cried out. “Sorry, Bud.”

 

Mac froze he even stopped breathing for a moment. “Bud?” Murdoc had called him MacGyver, Angus, Boy Scout, hell even Mac, but Bud? Never. Jack did that. That’s a Jack thing. Jack does it when he’s being caring or gentle.  _ It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act. _ Was he talking about Murdoc still, or was he now talking about Jack?

 

Murdoc set Mac down as quickly as possible. Mac had to cough to catch his breath.

 

“Okay, let us have a look, shall we?” Murdoc began to roll up Mac’s blue pant leg before Mac shot up and grabbed Murdoc’s hand to stop him from continuing with pain filled eyes. “Now, now. Lay back down.” Murdoc put his free hand on Mac’s chest and guided him back down. 

 

“It hurts.” Mac dizzily said.

 

“I know.” Murdoc smiled softly and brush Mac’s hair off his face. He quickly went back rolling up his pant leg even against Mac’s desperate whining. It was red and purple in some spots. The swelling was only minimally controlled by the cold so it was significantly larger than the other. “Alright, I will be right back with some ice packs. Don’t touch anything.”

 

Mac was tempted to search through the bag but his eyes became heavy. He must have dozed off because he hadn’t realized that any amount of time had passed.

 

Murdoc came back with an arm full of ice packs and began laying them around the broken part of his leg. Mac shivered fiercely. “It’s too cold.” He slurred and tried to push the ice packs off until Murdoc held him still and put them right back.

 

“But it will help with the swelling.” Murdoc turned around and dug through his duffle back. “Here.” 

 

Murdoc presented Mac the big blanket he had been using for the last month. Macs mouth was practically watering for it. Mac whimpered as the uncharacteristically warm blanket was draped over the top half of his body and the other leg.  _ Why was it so warm? _

 

“I warmed it up in the dryer for you,” Murdoc said as if he could read Mac’s mind.  _ It’s just another act. He doesn’t care. It’s just another act.  _ “I’ll be back to form a splint and wrap it after the swelling goes down a bit.”

 

Murdoc watched Mac’s lips mumble something incoherent. Murdoc wanted to run his bare fingers over Mac’s soft lips and hush him until he felt his breathing even out as a clear sign that he lost consciousness, but he refrained himself so he wouldn’t scare the helpless boy.

 

Instead, he sat close watching Mac’s eyes dart back and forth trying to stay awake.  _ Give up, Angus, Give up. As soon as you do that you won’t feel the pain anymore.  _ Murdoc thought.

 

“Mur...I just want…” He heard Mac say.

 

“What do you want?” Murdoc directed his ear towards Mac.

 

“...ome.” At this Murdoc chuckled.  _ Not today Angus, not today. _

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Murdoc went upstairs to see the very active little girl bouncing around. “Hey, kiddo.”

 

“Hey.” She simply responded.

 

“Hungry?” Murdoc examined her head nod and proceeded to the kitchen. “Since you were out late, I’ll make some soup. How does that sound?”

 

“Good.” She said as she followed him into the kitchen. “Hey, Dennis?”

 

“Yes?” Murdoc grabbed two cans of chicken noodle soup from the cabinets.   
  
“Why did he cry again?” She curiously watched him grab two.

 

“Who?” He began searching for the can opener.   
  
The girl looked behind her suspiciously and whispered: “The ghost.”

 

“Oh, I see,” Murdoc whispered back. “I didn’t hear anything.” Lie.

 

“But it was there!” She protested.

 

“Must have been the neighbor's cat. He probably got locked out again.” Lie.

 

“No! It was there.”

 

“Tell you what. After I go do chores in the basement we will go look for the neighbor's cat, if we see him we will let them know. If we don’t we'll come back inside and color.”   
  
“Color?” Her eyes lit up. Murdoc was positive if this kid grew up she’d become an artist. 

 

“Yep, but you have to eat your soup.” 

 

“What about him? Can he color?”   
  
“No. He is hurt, remember? He has to rest.” He had successfully found the can opener, and opened the cans, which he poured into a medium pot before he contemplated putting water into the soup to dilute it and make it thinner.   
  
“Coloring will make him feel better.”   
  


“No, it won’t. Only rest will.” He ended up not putting any water into the soup to make what nutrients were in it more concentrated, he didn’t need either of them getting sick.   
  
“Mommy will. He said ‘deal.’”

 

“Well, that’s a nice thought.”   
  
“Yeah, Mommy is nice.” The girl looked down. “When will Mommy come?”

  
“Hopefully soon.” That’s the reason he was playing parent to begin with, in hopes this kid’s mother would arrive.

 

“Soon.” She repeated.   
  
After to soup was warmed up he put some in two bowls and sat down and ate his serving in quiet as the girl was obviously lost in her own thoughts. He put the remnants of the pot into a third bowl and took it back down to Mac.

 

When Murdoc walked into the room, Mac was in some sort of fevered dream, and it was not pleasant. He set the soup down near the head of the mattress and laid in wait for Mac to wake up.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Before, when Murdoc had said there was a concrete box in the room to the left, he hadn’t been lying. Mac spent plenty of nights in that cold, damp and dark room. This time it was different.

 

He was in a smaller concrete box and it was scorching his skin, he cried out in pain, pleading to be let out. He only heard laughing. Not Murdoc’s daunting laugh but someone else's, someone familiar. It was a low and husky voice that would usually give him comfort but this time he felt uneasy. It was Jack's voice, although it sounded like it was through a tunnel it was unmistakably Jack's voice.

 

“Jack?!” Mac asked with a mix of excitement and relief. “Jack! Help me!”

 

“Mac is that you?” Jack said.

 

“Yes,” Mac sighed in relief. “I'm in here, help me out.”

 

“Help you?” Jack said. “What about no helicopter parenting?”

 

“I'm sorry I said that Jack. I need you. I really do.”

 

“You need help now?”

 

“Jack?”

 

“I'm just trying to get my mind around this.” Jack sounded as confused and upset. “You tell me to go away and that you don't need me and it's something you need to do by yourself. Like you only need the man who left you, but I have been by your side for how long?”

 

“Jack-”

 

“No man. You don't want me until you need me.”

 

“That's not-”

 

“You don't carry a damn gun because you don't want to get your hands dirty but you're fine with letting me do it.”

 

“No. I-”

 

“Not anymore Mac. I'm done being told what to do and where to go when I'm just trying to look after you!”

 

“We-” A pain shot through his body.

 

“Don't you get it?!” Jack's voice became louder and more aggressive. “There is no more ‘we!’ I'm done! You’re on your own. Why do you think I didn't call you back?!”

 

His voice became louder and louder until it felt like Mac's ears might explode and something really hurt. “I thought you were smart, but I guess you can't even take a hint.”

 

“Jack no!” Mac started fighting to claw his way out of the box and he heard footsteps go down the tunnel. Murdoc was right, he was pushing Jack away. “Jack please listen to me!”

 

“Hey.” A different voice came from the darkness.

 

“Jack!” Mac tried to get Jack to come back.

 

“Hey. Calm down.”

 

“Jack, come back!” It was too hot in the box and he couldn't hear Jack's foot steps.

 

“Angus, wake up.”

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

When Murdoc walked in he could instantly tell Mac had a fever, probably from going out in the cold and being stuck in a cold room all night, he was surprised he had a fever and not hypothermia. Murdoc watched him struggle underneath the blanket and examined the soup which has stopped steaming. “It's getting cold.” Murdoc absently said to himself, as he stepped towards Mac. “Angus.” Nothing.

 

“Angus.”

 

“No…”

 

“Angus.”

 

“We…” Murdoc shook his leg to wake him not even realizing what leg it was. Mac jerked.    
  
“Well it’s a response.” Murdoc said under his breath. “Hey.”

 

“Ja…” Mac began to breath heavily and his panic became greater.

 

Murdoc recognized that Mac was going to hyperventilate if he kept it up. “Angus. Calm down.”

Mac’s breathing leveled out. “Angus. Wake up.”

 

Mac’s eyes cracked open and he winced. “Wha…?”

 

Murdoc had never actually woken him up, that was something Mac had never noticed until it happened. “Sorry.” Murdoc said. “Your soup is getting cold and we’d better get this over with. I didn’t want to get kicked and have you get hurt worse.”   
  
Mac’s eyes widened. _ Murdoc said sorry? No. No. He’s not being nice. He caused this...He...I...No. _ Mac closed his eyes and tried not to panic and think about something else.

 

He felt Murdoc’s hand touch his broken leg and he began to slowly move it side to side, Mac sucked in his breath deeper with every movement. “Okay,” Murdoc said as he began lifting Mac’s leg slightly to look at the underneath. Mac’s hand went directly to his mouth and he bit it to keep from letting any sounds out. 

 

Murdoc gently set it back down and felt around the leg for anything abnormal. When he didn't find anything he sighed in relief just barely enough to hide it from the groggy Mac. “There’s no sign that the bone shards really went anywhere that could make your condition worse so we’re safe from that,” Murdoc’s eyes examined every part of the boy as he made his way to Mac’s face, which was scrunched up in pain. “Now comes the hard part, making sure it is set straight.”

 

“It...ah...It’s shattered.” Due to the fog of pain Mac’s brain was not working to the max. If he was being honest he didn’t want to deal with having to set his leg.

 

“Yes, pieces of the main bone shattered but my bet is that there is still a bone that can be repaired.” Murdoc turned to dig through his bag and he pulled out a long object that looked like a semicircular tube with a sealed bottom. Mac recognized it as casting that hadn’t been formed yet. As Murdoc went to slide it underneath Mac’s leg, Mac tried to instinctively turn away from the pain but failing due to Murdoc’s firm hand pushing his waist back flat on the bed. “Stay still Angus.”

 

Once his leg was in, his foot touched the bottom of the casting with his toes barely hanging off the edge of the sealed bottom and a cloth layering the inside. Murdoc grabbed a few wooden poles from the bag next to him and placed them on either side of Mac’s leg to show himself how the leg was supposed to be straight. “It’s a little off,” He said examining it closely, comparing it to the rods.

 

A smart ass remark almost just flew out of Mac’s mouth without a second thought but a searing pain shot up his body. Murdoc’s hand quickly flew up to Mac’s mouth, at that time he wasn’t the least bit phased by Mac biting his gloved hand. He didn’t say anything or even show a sign that his hand hurt in the slightest. “Knew I forgot something.” He blankly said drawing his hand away. Murdoc rolled up a white towel and held it in front of Mac’s mouth and instructed: “Bite.” Which he did.

 

Murdoc’s hand slid back down to Mac’s leg and once he started putting it where it should be again, he heard muffled and gagged screams. “Hush. it’s almost over.” Murdoc began to stroke Mac’s hair back from the sweat beads that had formed while we was sleeping, the action warranted a strange and dazed look from Mac. Murdoc slowly took the edges of the cloth that were tucked inside the undone casting and began to wrap Mac’s leg up. The cloth was equipped with two strings on either side about every three inches, this way Murdoc could tie the sloth shut around Mac’s leg to limit the swelling and keep the wooden rods in place. As he tied the strings together Mac began drifting back asleep before Murdoc shook his shoulder and his eyes lazily opened back up. “You need to eat first.”

 

“Not hungry.” He insisted. Mac wondered where he had stopped fighting Murdoc when it came to eating and at which point he started to eat when he was told to. Murdoc doubted that he even knew what was going on.

 

“Doesn’t matter. You need to eat.” Mac’s eyes fluttered as he tried to stay awake.  _ It is a wonder how Jack got him to eat without threatening him with bodily harm.  _ He thought to himself.

 

“M’kay.” Mac tried to fight back the small yawn, what he wouldn’t give to sleep, but when the strings around the break were tied tighter than the rest Mac found it less difficult to keep his eyes open for that brief moment. He was exhausted and just wanted everything to stop for just a minute. Mac grabbed at the air towards his leg. “Too-”

 

“It has to be tight.” Murdoc said guiding Mac's hand back down, he needed to reassure him that he would be okay.  _ He’s just like a child.  _ Murdoc thought once more. “Not enough to cut off circulation but enough to keep the swelling down and keep everything in place.”

 

“Why?” Mac sluggishly asked.

 

Murdoc sighed but said nothing.

 

“Do you even know why?”

 

“I'm almost done here.” He dogged the question.

 

“Why?” Mac asked.

 

“Because.”

 

“No. Why would you-”

 

“Because I thought it would be fun. You know watch you squirm while you waited for your bones to be crushed, listen to you scream afterwards, then watch you try to not be pathetic when you try to do anything.” A coy smile washed across Murdoc's face as he saw the boy scout try and wrap his mind around his actions.  _ He’s not a child he is a man who is very intelligent and who, even if he thinks does, doesn’t know everything yet. _

 

“And?” Mac seemed unaffected by Murdoc's smile.

 

“And what?” Murdoc wasn't prepared for follow up questions.

 

“Was it… was it fun?”

 

“Very.” Murdoc reached out to touch Mac's hair again but Mac pulled away from his hand. “Eat your soup and then you can sleep.”

 

As much as Mac didn't want to eat, he lusted for sleep. His body couldn't take anymore pain and if he could rest he'd eat all the soup in the world.

 

He managed to get in a somewhat sitting position, grabbed the soup and watched Murdoc leave the room.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Murdoc filled a pot with hot water and took it past the small child who had drawn three female characters, or what she claimed were female. With a wink and a smile he promised that they could go look for that cat soon after he cleaned something up. When she asked to help, Murdoc almost couldn't think of an excuse fast enough, he'd really prefer not to explain why there was a makeshift cast on Mac's leg that wasn't there last night.

 

“He's eating and sleeping. I'm not sure he wants a visitor right now.”

 

“Later?”

 

“No. He needs to rest not play.”

 

“I'll rest too.”

 

“Your bed is in your room. His bed is in his room.”

 

“Oh.” She simply said and went back to coloring.

 

Murdoc set the pot down right before the door and opened it slowly so he wouldn’t wake Mac if he had fallen asleep.

 

He, in fact, had fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position that made Murdoc grab his own neck.

 

Mac was slouched up against the wall with his neck bent, to keep his head up but still be laying down. Murdoc took a spare blanket, folded it and propped Mac's head up with it so that he could sit up but not in such an awful position. “Only I can give you things to complain about.” He said aloud. 

 

Murdoc took one of his gloves off and felt Mac's head, his fever had gone down almost completely.

 

Usually Mac was a light sleeper and every movement in the room made him shoot up like a frightened deer. He didn't even move when Murdoc had touched him, moved him, or spoke aloud, which was abnormal for him but understandable. 

 

Murdoc brought the hot water in and a cup that he had brought with him. He went to go pour some hot water on the outside of the casting before he noticed that Mac had moved his leg in it. “You won't feel this one as much. You are lucky Angus.”

 

Murdoc first readjusted the casting to make sure that when he got the casting wet it would properly fit Mac's leg. Next he had to make sure Mac's leg was still set correctly. He began putting pressure on it and squeezing the rods against Mac's leg. He heard the most pathetic and weak sound ever. Mac whimpered. The sound was sweet, Murdoc was tempted to see if he could get him to do it again but refocused on getting the cast fit.

 

Murdoc laid a cloth down on Mac’s leg to prevent his leg from getting wet and left a bit of cloth hanging out of the top to pull it out when he was done. He put a finger in the water to test its temperature to make sure that if he did spill some on Mac that it wouldn't burn him. It was hot enough to mold the cast and cause slight discomfort but not enough to burn his skin. 

 

Murdoc took the first cup of water and poured it down the side of the unmade cast, the material began to suck up the water and Murdoc immediately used both hands to bend the cast around Mac’s leg. He repeated the process until the cast was snug around his leg, now the last step would be to wrap the cast with an Ace bandage when he wakes up.

 

Murdoc reached up and felt Mac’s forehead once more. His fever was still down but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. “You shouldn’t have gone out without a coat Angus. Jack should have taught you that. No worries. You’ve learned now.”

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Mac was screaming but he couldn’t hear it. The flames roared higher as the room was currently being engulfed in flames. He kept screaming for Jack who was laughing, the whole team was there and in a mix of emotions. Jack was mocking him in anger, Matty was disappointed with Mac’s screaming for help and his inability to do anything for himself, Riley was disgusted at Mac’s burning flesh, and Bozer was just annoyed as his roommate wanted them to take action to help him. They were all in their own conversations but he couldn’t hear them. 

 

He had been pinned to the floor like a butterfly in a special collection with various torture devices. He screamed and apologized for any wrong he’d done, listing off the things Jack had said he’d already forgave but Mac still felt guilty for. Jack sneered at every attempt to reconcile with him. 

 

Eventually, one by one, his team began to fade and leave him, leaving Jack alone in the flames with Mac. “You really screwed up Angus MacGyver. There is no coming back this time.” With that Jack followed the rest of the Phoenix out but another dark figure, that Mac recognized as Murdoc, took Jack’s place. “You’re mine Angus. I can take care of you, but you have to be mine.”   
  
Tears rolled down Mac’s face. Tears that were hotter than the flames around him, they felt like molten lava compared to what was happening around him. “I’m sorry.” Mac whispered among the flames. Mac didn’t really have a specific target he was aiming his apologies to. Maybe he was saying sorry to himself for being so breakable, or maybe for being completely broken. He didn’t know. “I’m sorry.” Even in an eternal state of agony Mac was able to slip into some form of darkness.

________________________________________

  
AN: Alrighty kids, this is a lesson to all of you during winter! Don’t go outside without a coat or else Murdoc will come and break your leg with a sledgehammer and then give you soup so you don’t get sick! 


	16. Conversations

Matty was shocked with the information Rena had just given her. She couldn’t blame her, or manage to be mad at her. Matty just didn’t want her team to come crashing down before she could get it back together. The sweet girl Matty had only seen dedicate every moment of her time to find blonde agent had been less than sweet in the past. Could she even say it was Rena? The agent in question was Sirena Petrona, not those other girls Rena had told her about. How would Jack react if he found out? Out of all of the relationships Rena had made during her stay at the Phoenix, Jack was the one, the only one who could manage to make her laugh even after a dark topic had just been discussed. Although she laughed to hide the pain, she still laughed. Jack made sure that she was eating and sleeping when she was supposed to, and she would do the same for Jack. They shared the same concerns and the same pain, Jack had spent time trying to get Macalynn back and learned just how much Rena depended on the safety of her child just as Rena learned the extent of the codependency between Mac and Jack. Matty wasn’t sure if Jack would still look out for her or even look at her for that matter after he’d find out about Rena.

 

Matty believed in her heart and mind that keeping Rena on the case was the only way they would get Mac back, if she didn’t Rena would already be in Vegas, but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure that the team would think the same. Matty had her doubts when she got off the phone with the director of the Vegas unit, John, but after hearing what little Rena would share she knew that there was no way that Rena wasn’t going to tell them when the time came.  _ Time? What time was appropriate to tell us if not the beginning? _ Matty felt slightly betrayed but no way was she going to hold it against Rena.

 

Talking drew Matty out of her daze. Jack walked in with Rena at his side. “Russians? Seriously?” Jack was frustrated. “Well, at least we don’t have to keep guessing. Are you sure you know who it is?”   
  


“Positive Jack. No way it wouldn’t be her. She was the only one with such...intimate information.”   
  
“Wow, you two are early for once.” Matty harassed the duo.

 

“Good morning Matty.” Rena smiled but didn’t make eye contact. Rena was left in the dark about the information she had given Matty the previous night and how Matty felt about it.

 

“Morning Rena. Hello Jack.” Matty backed up towards the front of the room. “Mind telling me what Russians and being intimate have to do with either of our cases?”

 

“I got a note.” Rena still didn’t make eye contact and rather looked at Jack for help. 

 

“From this Russian chick about three or four years back.”   
  
“Three years and one month.” Rena corrected. “She...I don’t know...How could she know it was me?”

 

“One, that doesn’t make sense,” Matty stood to examine how flustered Rena had become. “And two: Jack, fill me in when the rest gets here.”

 

“Got it.” Jack looked at Rena who had gotten lost in her thought. “You okay?”   
  


“Hmm.” Rena managed a weak smile. “Yeah. Fine. Just worried.”   
  
“‘Bout?” Jack looked at her with the same concern she held in her heart.

 

She stood there for a drawn-out pause before she began to whisper to Jack. “You have no idea what she and her family is capable of. If she has Mac then my baby is basically-”   
  
“Hey don’t think like that.” Jack grabbed both of Rena’s slim shoulders, bent down and stood up straight to draw her eyes up. “We have somewhere to start! That’s good. For the last month, we have been guessing and guessing. We would have never come up with this chick if she hadn’t reached out to us first.”   
  
“Jack-”   
  
“I’m serious, kid.” Jack brought her in close. “We have a start.”   
  
When she was released from her bear hug she looked Jack dead in the eyes. “It won’t help if the race is over and the winner already has their trophy.”

 

Before Jack could come up with a comforting response the three other agents of the team filled in one by one and heard Matty’s voice directed towards the pair.

 

“You two care to join us?”   
  
“Sor-” Rena began.

 

“Let’s just save the apologies for later, we have two families that need to be put back together asap and we have clues to the locations of both.” Matty smiled at Rena in hopes to send her a secret message but not knowing if it got through to her or not. “Jack lets start with you.”   
  
“Sirena got a little message in the mail this morning, with someone just sayin’ hi from back in Russia. I’d read it but I’m not sure if-”   
  
“I’ll read it,” Rena spoke up and cleared her throat. “If it’s a clue we need to have everyone to have access to it.”   
  
“Right. Okay, go ahead kid.”

 

“My dear Ellies, how I have missed your company in the cold bitter weather of Russia. My uncle is not happy about you leaving but I still c-care of you. When will you come to say hello to your sweet child? She missed you so. I have special company with her. As I remember fondly of our time together you love the color red and have a special place in your heart for the job of an assassin. Due to your love for them, I have only the best for my love.” Rena stuttered on some lines as she translated the letter from Russian.

 

“Who is this man to you?” Kage asked leaning up against the side of the chair.

 

“Woman, and at the time she was a close friend or more.”   
  
“I think more,” Kage said. “She talked an awful lot about you and passion.”   
  
“Well, she and I...got complicated. She didn’t know I was American and I didn’t know she was the enemy. I did what I was sent there to do and -”   
  
“Sounds like you did more than you were supposed to.”   
  
“I was seventeen.” Rena defended.   
  
“And already enlisted? An overseas operative at that?” Kage questioned.   
  
“It’s not important. What is important is that I never told her I had a daughter.” Rena took a deep breath. “There is a mole in the Las Vegas Foundation. Or I can only assume so.”   
  
“You know what they say about assuming. It makes an-”   
  
“Kage!” Matty interrupted. “Sirena. Please, go on.”

 

“No one knows where my current location is besides my team and your team and of course the others here.”   
  
Jack looked shocked and on the verge of being mad. “I know you’re not sayin’ that the people here-”   
  
“No. Someone close to my team or on it.”   
  
“How?” Jack asked. “Why?”

 

“Either want to keep me on or off the team. I haven’t always had the best rep on the field, but I’ve always gotten each agent home.” Rena shook her head. “I am close to others and I push the rest away. I hate to admit it but I can’t trust anyone on that team. Peter is the only one I wouldn’t call a suspect.”   
  
“Why’s that? And who is that?”   
  
“Peter is a more docile version of Riley. He’s new. Like he came in a month before I came here.”   
  
“Wouldn’t that make sense for this Peter guy to sell you out then?” Kage crossed her arms.   
  
“I just don’t think it’s in his nature.”   
  
“Yeah, we had a few like that.” Jack snarled.

 

“John is the director and he has been messaging me non stop to come back. Al is my partner and he has been off on missions since before our last mission so I haven’t had any real contact with him for a bit. Mitchell is not the kindest person to work with but his goal is the same as everyone else’s; save innocent lives and get the team home. Then Peter, who I will reiterate on, I strongly believe wouldn’t do it.”   
  
“Okay. I will have Riley take a look at the group and have Bozer and Rena help her analyze it. Kage and Jack will be working on Mac’s case.”

 

“Speaking of which,” Riley interjected. “We also have some information on. Murdoc has either been leaving a bread trail or is getting sloppy.”

 

“He likes playing games, right?” Rena asked. “I doubt he is getting sloppy. It’s another game.”   
  
Matty shivered when she heard Rena speak with such certainty, knowing that the team would just assume it’s just a hunch. “I think you’re right,” Matty reassured any doubts that may have floated around. In order to protect her team, she needed to keep Rena’s secret until they had Mac back or were close to it.

 

“Rena you know we have to look at Peter, right?” Riley lifted her eyebrows.

  
“Of course, I just have my doubts.”   
  
“Did you have your doubts with the Russian?” Kage slowly turned her head away from the wall and to Rena blankly.   
  
“Excuse me?” Rena stood up and faced the voice who spoke up.

 

“Are you and Peter having a relationship?”   
  
“No. I would never.”   
  
“Is that because you don’t mix work with the rest of your life or because he’s not the enemy.”   
  
“How about neither.”   
  
“How can we rule out that possibility?”   
  
“Even if I was, which I am not, I would prioritize my daughter's life!” Rena huffed. “And I’m rather fond of female company.” 

 

Kage stopped and stared at the light of new information. “Sorry. It’s just been stressful.”   
  
“Go to the gym next time. Don’t take it out on me.”

 

“Kage do you need to be in time out?” Matty asked over the top of Rena’s last comment.

 

“No?” Kage was taken back.

 

“Then stop throwing a fit. What did I tell you before?” Matty gave Kage _ the look _ .

 

“Sorry. Sorry.” Kage said retreating back to the side of the chair, saying nothing more.

 

“What do you have Riles?” Jack said hoping to create a distraction from whatever just happened between Rena and Kage. 

 

“Well, Mac said something about 3 inches of snow that night. So, I made a map.” Riley pulled up a map of the U.S. with light blue pixels in the center and further up North.    
  
“So that’s the area that had 3 inches of snow?” Rena looked closely at it. “That’s a lot to search.”   
  
“Until I narrowed it down to this.” Red pixels cut off excess blue ones and left just Minnesota.

 

“What has you set on Minnesota?” Rena asked.

 

“It’s Mac’s birth state.” Riley closed her eyes and took a moment. “At first I wasn’t really sure about it, but I ran some quick searches and some recognition on the areas around Mission City and there are two areas I’d like to check. It’s a big state but it’s a start. Plus, it's just another game. Take Mac back to where he was born.”

 

“How does he know that information?” Rena asked.

 

“Honestly? No one is really sure how he got all that information on Mac, or on any of us at that.” Riley shook her head. “I mean the thought that he knows where all of us are at every moment is just…”   
  
“Ri,” Jack walked over to Riley who was sitting in the chair Kage was leaning against. “It’s okay Ri. If you want we can all bunk together.”   
  
“I’ll be fine.” Riley huffed. “If anything happens bunking together might be a good idea though.”   
  
“Riley send that information on those locations to Jack and Kage.” Matty sighed. “And guys, this might be our only chance, so treat it like so. Don’t storm in anywhere, lay low, and don’t blow anything up.”   
  
“Blowing things up is Mac’s job.” Jack corrected his boss. “And he’s damn good at it too.”

 

“That he is, but regardless of whose job it is Jack, I don’t want to call and apologize to an entire city for having one of my agents blow up a building!”

 

“Yes, ma’am,” Jack said respecting the chain of authority while still taking it as a joke, although she wasn’t completely wrong to be skeptical.

 

“So is anyone coming with us Matty?”   
  
“No. We still don’t have the manpower,” Matty glance quickly at Rena and looked back to Kage and Jack. “Plus, it wouldn’t look great to have SWAT teams going door to door. We might spook Murdoc.” 

 

“Or Murdoc might spook the SWAT team,” Jack mumbled. “What happens if me or Kage-”

 

“Kage and I.” Matty corrected in the stead of Rena. 

 

“Okay, whatever. What happens if we do spot them?”   
  
“Why do you think we are still short handed?” Matty gave a small smile and Jack nodded in confusion.   
  
“Uh-huh. And why are we low on hands?”   
  
“We already have boots on the ground, Jack.” Matty looked at Riley. “Riley and I came up with a little plan of our own.”   
  
“What? How? What is it?”   
  
“Just go, Jack. Wheels up in thirty. Once you and Kage land you will be split up between two locations. You will be sent the information in the air via Riley, we will be down here on comms and working with Rena to gather more intel on her group.” Matty faced the general direction of everyone. “All of you got that? You know what to do...now get to it.”

 

The parties dispersed. “Let the hunt begin,” Matty whispered.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Mac gasped for breath as he woke up from his fevered dreams, he was alone. He held his head and felt the early warning signs of a migraine and slight congestion. He was getting sick. “Great,” Mac mumbled aloud. His throat was coarse and dry. Mac felt like he needed at least a gallon of water after all of his screamings.

 

He felt slimy and he just wanted to go back to sleep, that way he wouldn’t have to deal with moving and the pain that would cause. He faced the fact that he should move and examine the damage. As he sat up his leg felt heavy and like a thousand pins stabbed at it, but it didn’t hurt. Mac looked closely at Murdoc’s handy work. It was definitely an in-the-field job. The cast wasn’t sealed completely but pretty close and it covered his knee to where he wouldn’t be able to bend his leg.

 

A panicked thought hit Mac. Even if he could feel his leg could he move the other parts? Had his foot been paralyzed? Mac tested this theory and at first, he got nothing. His heart rate sped up as he tried again, still nothing. Mac took a deep breath and decided to take his other arm to touch his toes that were sticking out of the cast slightly. He felt a light tingle as his fingers brushed the top of his big toe. Mac sighed in relief and tried to move his toes again. This time he felt a slight twitch. 

 

Mac laid back down in relief, he couldn’t really feel anything at all, mainly just nerve sensory. The pain was turned into a tingling sensation everywhere. From all of this Mac deduced that Murdoc gave him a pain killer, probably morphine. _ Why? Why would he do that? Did that girl say something? Did he get tired of listening to me?  _

 

_ He care- _

 

_ Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. _

 

_ But you’re the one who thinks this way. _

 

_ I don’t care, let me enjoy this moment without pain. I don’t need you. _

 

A moment of silence hung outside and inside Mac's head, he was happy when the other Mac quieted and said nothing more. The door opening was like a bomb going off in the silence and Mac jumped at it. 

 

Murdoc strode in saying nothing with his mouth but commanding everything with his eyes. Mac stiffened, his whole body rigid. “How does it feel?”   
  
Mac wondered if this was a moment where Murdoc was actually looking for a response or if he was just going to launch into another mind game. His best idea was just to stay quiet and watch Murdoc’s reaction. “Now I know it’s not medical grade, but this was the next best thing.”   
  
Mac watched Murdoc pace around the empty bathtub and memories flooded his mind.

 

_ He couldn’t breath. He was too weak to lift his head up and fight the hand that kept him underneath the water. His shoulders burned. He couldn’t move his hands or arms. His lungs burned. He tried to keep from breathing but his body betrayed him and sucked inwards. Just then Murdoc ripped him upwards by his hair leaving Mac to gurgle and cough out what water he could. He only had time for one more deep breath before getting plunged back in. His ribs hurt from being slammed up against the side of the tub. He thrashed and kicked and tried to twist but he wasn’t in a position to do anything. His lungs burned. He needed air. He commanded his body to hold his breath as long as he could. Mac could feel the little bubbles tickle his face going upwards. His lungs burned. He felt the water rush off of his face and the chill go down his spine as he was raised above water again. Each trip began to get shorter and shorter but harder and harder to bare as each break was shorter than the last until Murdoc held him under until he passed out. Murdoc said nothing, asked for nothing. He just did. _

 

_ XXXXXXXXXXXXX _

 

_ It was cold. So cold. His body felt like a knife had just cut through each of his limbs. He started sinking and Murdoc wasn't even in the room to pull him back up. His arms were tied behind his back so he couldn’t pull himself out or up. It was so cold everything hurt. The cold was unbearable. How long had he been in there? It felt like days but it was probably a few hours. A piece of ice floated past Mac’s tired eyes. It was melting, but it was so cold. _

 

_ “When did Murdoc get there? What’s in that bucket? Mudoc, no! Listen to me! No! Can you hear me? Am I saying anything? Did I scream? Waste of body heat to scream. Murdoc, please no more. Stop don’t do it...It’s cold! So cold! Too cold! The ice is back! It hurts! It’s so cold.” His own thoughts began to replay themselves so often. He was still slipping. Would he die there? Murdoc had left again and he was slipping. He was going to drown. Murdoc said nothing, asked for nothing. He just did. _

 

_ XXXXXXXXXXXXX _

 

_ The tub was dry, for now. Murdoc had buckets of water set up along the outside. Mac was tied up inside with a sack over his head. The first bucket drenched the sack and only limited his breathing slightly. The next stole his breath. The next filled it with water and so did the one after that and the one after that. One after the other. They kept coming. It never stopped. He couldn’t breath.  _

 

_ Mac woke up again. The same pool of water he had been laying in but a new, dry sack over his head. The process repeated itself. It happened randomly. He couldn’t guess when it would happen so he couldn't brace himself. The water kept rising and rising. If the adapted waterboarding wouldn’t kill him the water left in the tub would. Murdoc said nothing, asked for nothing. He just did. _

 

_ XXXXXXXXXXXXX _

 

“And so I was thinking I could grab a garbage bag and tie it around you leg so we could get you properly cleaned upstairs. Hello? MacGyver?”   
  
“What?” Mac batted away the tears with his long eyelashes. “Yeah.”

 

“Didn’t hear a word. We could bird bath it if you wish, but that option is a little more...hands on. I mean I don’t mind that one but…”

 

“I just want to sleep.” Mac whispered as he closed his eyes. He wasn’t even sure if Murdoc heard him or not he just kept talking and talking. He just wanted everything to stop for a minute.   
  
“You’re right. If we bird bath it you don’t have to waste any energy trying to get upstairs. We will do it that way. Prevents any water from accidentally getting inside the cast.” Murdoc concluded his thoughts and examined Mac who had his eyes screwed shut. “Yeah we will go with that one.”

 

Murdoc left and came back with a bucket of water. Mac watched the steam rise from the bucket and smelled the soap as Murdoc came closer.

 

Murdoc sat Mac up and began to take Mac's shirt off slowly as his ribs were either cracked or broken or both. Mac inhaled sharply as the shirt came off and Murdoc pressed his chest back down to the bed. After that Murdoc brought out a pair of scissors.

 

Panic rose to Mac's chest as he had flashbacks of the dual bladed tool. 

 

_ The metallic object plunged deep into his shoulder and he gasped for air. “This next part is fun.” The voice rang through his head as he felt the wound spilt wider as Murdoc opened the scissors and felt the flesh clip itself and the muscles rip as he closed them again. Mac screamed each time the process was repeated until all he could feel was burning pain and hot liquid pouring down his cold skin. _

 

_ After it was all said and done Murdoc viciously removed the scissors and began to run his hand through Mac's hair and ran the scissors across his hairline. “I've always wanted to remove your beautiful hair from your beautiful scalp, but it might be a bit much yet. So I will have to make due.” Mac heard the familiar sound of scissors cutting through a thick lock of hair. _

 

Mac blinked and realized it wasn't the sound of hair being cut but the flimsy blue material of his pants. The cold metal blades grazed across his skin and sent a shiver down Mac's spine. When all the material had been cut away it left him exposed in his boxers which Murdoc took a moment to ponder about removing. 

 

Murdoc examined the fear of the loss of his dignity during to how ‘personal’ the cleaning would have to be. He could tell from the boys blue eyes that he was horrified at the possibility of Murdoc stripping him completely and how that thrilled Murdoc. He silently pleaded and prayed that Murdoc wouldn't go any further, but God has obviously decided that he was strongly against one Angus MacGyver in his short life so far.

 

Murdoc cut away the boxers and left the blonde completely frozen in fear. Murdoc set the scissors down near the bedside and examined the frightened creature. The sight itself was just as beautiful as his body but Murdoc didn't want to break him just yet, not in that way at least.  _ Besides,  _ Murdoc thought to himself.  _ I wouldn't have to commit the act in order for him to feel mortified, just tempt him with the offer.  _ Murdoc removed his gloves and smiled grimly at the light reflection that the bucket offered. As he did this Mac slid his hand over the side of the mattress and tucked the scissors underneath.

 

Murdoc began to dip the hand towel in the bucket and started to wash Mac's face, head, and neck first. Mac glued his eyes shut to do more than keep the soap out of his eyes. He didn't want to see the looks Murdoc was giving him, feeling Murdoc's hands over his body and feeling the looks was more than enough. It was almost too much. Mac had began to hold his breath and only let out occasional gasps when he felt like he was about to pass out. As much as he hated every bit of this and wanted it all to stop, he couldn't bare passing out and not knowing what would happen when he was unconscious. He needed to make sure he knew that Murdoc wouldn't...Mac shook the thought out of his head and began thinking of anything else. The tile in the kitchen was-

 

“MacGyver,” Murdoc snapped his unloved fingers in front of Mac's face to draw his attention. And it did.

 

Mac flinched at the loud drumming in his ears once the snaps began to echo in his head. “Once we are done here I'm going to wrap your leg and you are  _ not going  _ to move it.  _ Understood?” _

 

A gentle nod came from Mac, and he closed his eyes once again. “Good.”

 

The texturally assault of the rough towel finally ended after what seemed like hours. Mac was once again fully clothed, his leg wrapped and propped up, and the pain medication almost fully worn off.

 

Mac starred at the ceiling and began counting the tiles. Seven, two-foot by one-foot tiles across, and fourteen, one-foot by two-foot tiles down. The room is approximately a fourteen-by-fourteen and the height from the floor to the ceiling was about ten and a half feet tall. Where had been cement rooms like this? Rooms like this were typically used for storage for cleaning or food and since this house had two one was the basement, which he was in and the other was for food storage most likely. Which meant that he was in a place that needed extra room in case of a storm that boxed people in their homes. Northern and central state homes usually had extreme snow that could be too dangerous to drive in and could last for days. Why hadn't he noticed this before?  _ Oh, right. Didn't have the incentive of a broken limb like I do now.  _ Mac tucked all this knowledge away for a later and more thorough examination when Murdoc walked in with more soup. Mac's stomach churned. He could still remember the tin taste of the canned soup in his mouth from a few hours ago. 

 

“Here,” Murdoc said setting down the soup and the spoon next to Mac.

 

“I-” Before he could protest the processed soup Mac broke into a light cough that Murdoc would only use against him.

 

“See,” Murdoc began to explain. “This is why I had to keep you from being outside in the cold.”

 

“Don't.” Mac coughed again trying to clear his throat of the imaginary blockage he felt he had.

 

Murdoc's jaw set in anger and Mac knew he only had a slight chance to fix this. “Don't what? MacGyver.”

 

“No, nothing.”

 

“No, no. You opened your mouth and let a single unexplained word come out. Now I would like you to elaborate.”

 

Mac shifted uncomfortably as he tried to think of something, anything to get him out of this.  A firm hand came short of slamming down on his ‘cast’ and he gasped as he saw it happen in slow motion. “I said: ‘Do not move.’ I thought we had an understanding on that.”   
  
Mac swallowed not wanting to say anything that would get him in trouble further today, but that irritated Murdoc just as much as saying the wrong thing, if not more. Usually, Murdoc would become furious and force the action he had wanted Mac to do upon him and let him know who was really in control, instead Murdoc took a deep breath. “I know today has been stressful and sometimes when the stress gets too great, you become rebellious and gain an attitude. That I can completely understand, but I need you to make an effort to communicate with me. So, did you want to elaborate on what you said?”

 

Murdoc caught Mac off-guard with the way his tone changed, as if Murdoc was his father and he had been reading parenting books and Mac was his troubled teen who became his helpless guinea pig. “If not that’s okay. Just eat you’re soup and we can talk about this sometime soon.” Murdoc began to prob Mac up with a wooden board and pillows between the wall and his lower back.

 

Later, Mac watched Murdoc stride out of the room proudly. He was dumbfounded and had no idea what just happened. Mac started to just drink some of the broth not trusting his stomach to hold much more than that. He felt disgusted at everything that took place today. Murdoc walked in about half an hour later and decided for Mac how much his stomach would hold. He began to force the, now cold, soup down Mac’s throat, ignoring the need for Mac to take a breath almost to the point where he passed out due to lack of oxygen, dismissing the coughs Mac desperately needed to expel from both the suffocation and the beginnings of a cold. Although the spoon did not cut through the interior of his mouth, it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt the same as if it had ripped open the flesh. Mac felt the metal clashing with his teeth and forcing its way through the wall of bone and enamel that Mac had used to take a momentary break before each painful spoon full. 

 

Once the day was determined to finally be done, Mac laid down exhausted from the day's events but not quite willing to give in to the series of nightmares that were to follow. So he brought out his mental folder of the room and it's contents and began to look closely at every fine detail until the need for sleep got too great for Mac to handle.

______________________________________

 

A/N: I am so sorry it’s been a while since the last chapter! I am a high school senior and I have been struggling to write my scholarship essays for college. I only find the time to write when I am about to go to bed or right after I wake up. Occasionally, I write to relieve my anxiety from having to get adult and during that time I wrote two one-shots, so go check them out! They are called “ **New Jack** ” where Rena has a new backstory and a new job title and “ **Him and Her One Shot** ” where, after Mac has had time to process Jack leaving, he met a girl named Alyssa and has to work on putting her back together after a mission without Mac went wrong (this one hints heavily at explicit content). I thank you for your patience and support during this (stressful O.o) time! Please let me know what you think of this chapter. Towards the bottom, I tried to use a more descriptive and sensory based form of writing and really hoped you liked it! Don’t forget to thank my Beta Reader Myrabella!

 

For those of you reading on AO3 the two fanfictions I mentioned may or may not be available quite yet and will be coming out soon if not. Keep an eye out!


	17. Empty

WARNING: PREPARE YOURSELF FOR DEATH OF A CHARACTER.

  
  


Jack and Kage landed in Minnesota and split the moment their feet hit the pavement of the cold, hard ground. Their private plane had landed in a recreational aviation facility where two separate vehicles had been waiting, both of them already in full TAC gear took the vehicles to their separate locations Matty sent. Both of the houses, in the opposite ends of Mission City, but similar conditions, were met, no neighbors, no main roads, basements, and lack of habitation, except the investigation that Riley had conducted the two houses were both being rented by mystery men with no identifiable pasts. Both of the houses had similar electrical and water bills. Both of the houses were perfect for disappearing. Kage took the East location and Jack the South West.

 

Jack looked through the snow and at a simple one-story house that had a glass screen door, the sky blue paint looked more like a pale gray and the windows were shut. The car had the same amount of snow on it that the ground did, maybe a little more and there were no footprints in the snow other than his and the distant sniper team waiting for his move. Jack moved around to the back of the house and saw the glass doors with the security alarms attached to the frame of the door and the door itself. Jack had a clear view of the front door where the alarm was, the light was green meaning that it was not set and wouldn’t go off if he opened the door.

 

“Hey, Matty. The alarm isn’t even set on this one. You sure it’s the right place?”   
  
“Yes, Jack. Get in position.” Said the stern voice on the other side of the comms.

 

Jack mumbled something that Matty threatened him to make him physically eat his words if he screwed up this op. 

 

On Kage’s end, she stood a little off from a light green two-story house and as Kage tried to circle around the back all she was met with was a fence, but from what she could see, it had a balcony on the back. Two familiar voices cut off her train of thought

 

“Hey, Jack outside of mine his clear, but I am going to have to move in through the front, give me your cue.”   
  
“Ready when you are, hun,” Jack said.

 

“On the count of three.” They flew by like a storm as Jack and Kage kicked through their respective doors. The searches happened in sync as they cleared the living room, main bathroom, kitchen, and the rest to follow.

 

“Kage, It’s empty in here, just a bunch of trash. Looks like just a whole lot of squatters. What about you?”   
  
“Just one more room to check but it looks like whoever had been living here is gone for the day. There were fresh tire tracks in the snow, but they left before any of ours got into position.” Kage strode down a darker hallway and looked back down the way she had just come. 

 

“What did you find though?” This one was Matty.   
  
“Whoever was living here wasn’t alone and awfully tidy. Not even a hair out of place. I am entering the final room.” Kage said with her hand on the door. She opened the door, but it wasn’t the only thing to open, her mouth hung there unable to catch itself. She stared at an unconscious blonde who, even in sleep, looked distressed. The room was a smaller one, colder than the rest. Even though he had a blanket it was cast to the side and Kage could see a large white object, that she could only assume was Murdoc’s version of a cast. She went closer to examine Mac’s condition. He was pale, but she could still see him breathing, which was good. As she checked his pulse and temperature, bright blue eyes flew open and an icy hand caught hers and he shot up in pain. “I have Mac.”   
  
“Is he okay?” This was Jack. Obviously panicked and heading towards his car to get to her location. “How is he?”   
  
“Fine, or as well as he could be. He has a cast of sorts on his leg and is conscious.”

 

“Tell him we are on the way.”   
  
“Got it, Jack.” Kage turned towards Mac, who obviously was still highly confused about what was happening. “Hear that Mac? We are going to get you outta here.”

 

Mac blinked and cleared his eyes and let everything sink in. Kage, his teammate, his friend, was sitting in front of him waiting for him to come to his senses so she could take him home. Mac had too many emotions fill his body; relief, joy, fear, anger, happiness, anxiety, and just too many to process. “Kage?”   
  
“Yeah, Mac. I’m here.” Kage rubbed his back and waited for him to relax and give her her hand back. “Jack and the other’s have been looking like crazy to find you.”   
  
“Jack?” He asked as if he were a mere mockingbird.

 

“Yeah, now let’s get you outta here.”   
  
A sudden realization hit him, there was another tenant in Murdoc’s house of horrors. “Kage, there is-” BANG.

 

Mac starred in surprise as Kage stopped everything she was doing and fell to the side. Mac tried to process what happened at that moment, but he only did when he saw the blood pool around her head and Murdoc standing at the door of the room. “Kage!” Mac yelled.

 

He was about to scamper towards her before Murdoc ran to his side and grabbed Mac's chest and forced him to sit against the wall. 

 

“Shh, Shh.” Murdoc breathed out as Mac tried to push against him. “It's okay, they tried to take you, they didn't even ask,” Mac screamed and still pushed forward only to be slammed against the wall again. “Shh. It's okay.” 

 

Mac felt only a few emotions now, but these ones felt less manageable. He felt lost, hopeless, and despaired. He watched the blood puddle grow larger around her head as he slid down the wall and back onto the mattress. Kage laid there still and emotionless, which was a huge turn from what Mac felt. With all of the emotions, Mac felt, he also felt guilty, guilty he was missing hatred. He never wanted to hate someone so much in his life, but he was unable to bring himself to do it. Instead, he cursed himself and at Kage for bothering to come.

 

He grabbed fist fulls of his own hair and rubbed his good leg against the mattress just to feel like he was going somewhere. _ This is your fault. She had a sister. Now she is dead and it's your fault. It should be you laying in your own blood, not her. She didn't deserve this, but you did. I don't deserve to be alive if a good person died for me, a pointless death. Jack hates me, that's why Kage was willing to sacrifice herself for a pointless rescue, Jack wasn't there. If I go kaboom, I do it alone. This is where you finally break. Even if Jack did care, he wouldn't bother putting something back together he can’t fix. Even Jack knows a shattered vase isn't worth putting back together when all you end up with is a fragile, ugly, unstable, glass mess and you might end getting hurt as well. _

 

Murdoc, out of nowhere, threw some rope on  Mac's lap and he froze.  _ Rope means stay put.  _ He watched Murdoc carefully as he grabbed something out of a small bag Mac hadn't even noticed he had brought in with him. It was a vial of an unmarked substance, at this point it didn't even surprise him. Murdoc had him drowsy or unconscious half the time anyway. But what did surprise him was when Murdoc pulled out a red rubber rope and began to tie it just above the bend of Mac's arm, and tight.

 

“I can't wait to see the look on your face.” Murdoc finally said after drawing up some of the liquid from the vial with a syringe. 

 

“What else can you possibly do?” Mac stared emptily at Kage’s dead body.

 

“Much more, but that's not the point.” Murdoc paused to examine Mac's face and didn't like what he saw. “ _ She _ is not supposed to break you. He is.”

 

Mac's face lit up in alarm.  _ No. Jack may hate me, but don't you dare touch him.  _ A moment of agonizing silence before Mac clenched his teeth.  _ Who am I kidding? What can I stop? Jack is better equipped to take care of himself and the whole team than I am to take care of even me.  _  Sharp pain in the crease of his arm brought him out of his own head. “Son of a-” Mac whispered.

 

“Still not a fan of needles?” Murdoc mocked pressing down on the end of the syringe with his thumb to empty the plastic container out. During this whole time, Mac found out that he very much appreciates a caring hand at Medical when they insert an IV. He'd much rather have them over a deranged lunatic whose end goal is to cause him as much pain as possible. “Soon you won't be able to get enough of them.”

 

“What?”

 

“You see, you had always taken such good care of your body when you weren't getting shot at. Eating right. Running exactly three and a half miles when you were running late, five on a normal day. I have gotten bored of hurting your outsides,” Murdoc said taking Mac's face in one of his hands. “It's not enough anymore.” Each word that was falling out of his mouth came as a deliberate stab, only getting more and more aggressive as Mac pieced them together. “I wanted to see how Jack and the others would react when they see you high and vulnerable.”

 

“You gave me narcotics?” Mac asked, panicked on the outside, but he wasn't even sure if he cared anymore.

 

“Heroin to be exact. That's how Kage made it so far, I have gone shopping from a particular young man.” Yet another opportunity Mac missed for escape. Mac was never really sure when Murdoc was actually gone or if he was trying to trick him and lure him out to “teach him a lesson” again. Every time he had believed that Murdoc was gone, he'd be there, so eventually, he just began to wait for better chances to come to him instead. Which they never did. It was just another excuse for Mac to justify his weakness and inability to succeed at a simple task. Even if it wasn't simple, Mac made it seem like it was, it was as simple as getting out of bed in the mornings and walking out the front door, but this wasn't that simple. He was too used to being the best at being resourceful, but Murdoc had proved himself to also be resourceful and a match against Mac's intellect, and just left him with questions. “We won't be here much longer so I will leave the  _ body _ to be handled by your Merry Little Band, who is probably already on their way.”

 

Mac let it sink in that the thing that looks like Kage, wasn't Kage it was just a body, it may have belonged to her, but it wasn't her. He'd never hear her thick accent or see her smile again. He'd never be able to share beers after a long mission or talk over a meal that Bozer made after Mac burned his attempt at something edible. He'd never see Kage again, just a body.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

 

“Kage? Kage! Respond. How is Mac's condition?” Jack waited for a response but got nothing. “Matty something ain't right. You have those men storm that damn house.”

 

“I am going to pretend that was a request to your superior, Dalton.” Matty paused. “I already tried to send them the go-ahead but Riley can't get through to them and I don't have a way to get to them either. They had all gone dark. Jack, how fast can you get there?”

 

“Depends on how fast that piece of junk can go,” Jack said already climbing in the car Matty had given them.

 

“Be careful Dalton. We don't know who cut our feed, but we have a pretty good guess.”

 

“I'm gonna do what I need to do Matty,” Jack said furiously while gassing it across town. “He's been with that lunatic for way too long, we know what he can do to Mac with just getting into his head, but when he can get his hands on him? Matty-”

 

“I know Jack, that's why you have to be there to remind our Blondie who cares about him, to help fix the damage Murdoc has done.”

 

“What if it's too much? I could pull him back after he played Murdoc and after Afghanistan, but this?”

 

“I've seen you take care of our boy before and I don't think it will be much different, just a bit more lengthy and confusing.” Matty sighed. “Riley, if they cut the feed, check nearby cameras. I bet Murdoc won't be sticking around long if he knows he's been found, and you don't even have to guess if he's taking Mac to tag along, I have a feeling this isn't over yet. Rena, Bozer. Go get-Jack!”

 

“What?!” Jack shot up in his seat and white-knuckle the steering wheel. “What's going on?”

 

“We are watching you drive like a maniac! That's what.” Matty shook her head. 

 

“I gotta get there somehow!” He defended.

 

“Not in pieces!” Matty yelled in his ear. 

 

“Okay, fine.” Jack stepped on the gas further.

 

“Dalton!” 

 

“What do you expect Matty? Huh?!”

 

“Nothing, I was going to say take the next right,” Matty said assertively, knowing it was the only way to get through to Jack at this point.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

 

Mac started feeling light and dizzy, but not a bad dizzy. He let the colors dance in his vision but didn't really try to push past them to see what was happening in real life, just admired them as if he was watching a real performance of spectacular talent. Yellows and blues tried diligently to create greens. Reds tried to fight for the blurs of blue to make passionate purples. Yellow chased the red around to complete a circle and make a warm orange. They took various forms, some of which scared Mac, others delighted, but mostly confused him. He felt numb, numb to Kage's body, numb to the pain of his leg and being jostled around, numb to the feelings of self-hatred and guilt. For once in a long time, Mac felt nothing and he just wanted this relief to last for a long time. No. Forever.

 

Murdoc glanced back and watched Mac stare blankly ahead, and turned back to face the steering wheel of the SUV he'd managed to get his hands on. Although, it wasn't black like he enjoyed his cars to be, midnight blue also fit his aesthetic. “What happened to him?” A soft voice asked from the seat behind him. 

 

“I told you he got hurt too much and we need to take care of him.” The child's questions were mostly just getting on his nerves.

 

“Where's Mommy?” the voice rose and got even more of that high pitch curious tone into it.

 

“Mommy is going to visit us after we run an errand.” Murdoc rubbed his temples with his gloved hands and tried to ignore any further questions from the child to regroup his thoughts.

 

“Will Mommy fix him?” Murdoc had enough, at this point, he didn't care about the job or the deal he had made, he wanted this kid to be quiet.

 

But he bit his tongue and sat on his hands, speaking figuratively. “Just be quiet. For a moment?” 

 

“Okay,” She whispered timidly, shying back into her car seat letting her blonde locks fall freely as she turned to look out the window. Murdoc knew he had snapped at the child and he should have kept his patience, but if things went according to plan he wouldn’t have to deal with her much more. Although he found her slightly annoying on some cases (he found most humans that way if he was completely honest), she reminded him of Cassian in the most childish and innocent ways. She is not Cassian. If she was, he would have to find a better excuse to kidnap MacGyver.

 

Murdoc saw the cameras of the stop lights and thought that this would be a perfect spot. He pushed a button and rolled down the window of the passenger side, threw out a small black bag and waved at the new set of cameras as he finished the turn, hoping the bag had made it on or close enough to the sidewalk.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

 

Riley stared at her monitor, shook her head and cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. “Are you serious?”   
  
“What?” Rena turned away from her own work to peer over Riley’s shoulder and immediately became enraged. “Are you serious? After all this? That smug bastard! Matty, better take a look.”   
  
Matty bit her tongue as she watched clearly; Murdoc threw out a small bag and waved at the damn cameras. “Riley, I want that Bag. Jack, new destination, a bag on the corner street. I want it before a civilian picks it up and we have to go on a goose chase to find it.”

 

Matty had Riley send the coordinates to Jack and he swore, but changed his route slightly. “I have it now Matty, but I am going straight to Kage now, see what she knows. Something doesn't feel right Matty.”

 

“Usually I would tell you your spidey sense needs to turn off, but seeing as this is unusual, I agree.”

 

“Going dark and not coming back on by now isn't like her.”

 

“I know. Get there, Jack. We have already lost Murdoc in traffic.”

 

“That son of a bitch was mobile?”

 

“Jack, you need to focus on a lead you can follow-”

 

“And I couldn't follow him?!”

 

“No, Jack. You couldn't. Kage might need support right now and if Riley can't keep track of him from above, you can't from the ground. Besides Jack, if Murdoc got spooked and decided that Mac isn't worth keeping around anymore, what then?”

 

“Matty-” Jack began to plead.

 

“I know Jack.” Matty sighed in pity. She knew it was driving Jack nuts, being so close and yet Murdoc always being so far away. “Just hold in there.”

 

Jack tried to clear his head of Mac and focus on Kage now. She had come in the team after the Phoenix rescued one of her old team members who was being kept as a prisoner of war and had his execution planned. Jack knew that Kage wouldn't ever let Matty down since Matty took such a risk on her after she acted on her own to assist in the rescue. Kage had acclimated quite nicely to the family but was still a mystery in herself. Jack knew her as Samantha Kage, but he knew that was more than likely an alias that she went by. She had a sister. She was late twenties early thirties. Good shot. Great agent. She was talented in psychology and was fluent in many tongues. She was an ideal spy. But that is all Jack really knew. She didn't dive much into personal life but was curious about other people's lives. Jack shook this off as her just being too used to field work and thought nothing more of it until Rena pointed it out.

 

Everything was falling apart. Rena looking for her kid while Jack was busy looking for his. Hell, Jack would have corrected himself calling Mac his kid if it wasn't basically the truth. He just wanted that boy to be healthy, safe, and happy, but he was going to have to deal with Murdoc if that was going to be his reality. Right now Mac was in constant danger, injured, and miserable. Nothing can be worse than that. If everything wasn’t so confusing with Rena...Damn, he didn’t know much about her. She was so selective with the knowledge she shared with the rest of the team, Matty seemed like she knew something the rest of them didn’t though. He would have to make a mental note to talk to her later, see what she found out and what was Rena’s actual goal in all this. She seemed like a sweet kid, Jack trusted her at first but with all the stress going on he didn’t want to have to worry about saving someone else’s ass, just Mac’s. She showed up in the worst time possible, although she was helpful with the goose chase and the trucks and stuff, Jack didn’t really see the need for her anymore. Jack hated to admit it, but Rena just made things so confusing. 

 

Jack pulled up to the house and it was dead silent, the door was left open and there were a lot of fresh footprints and a set of tire tracks that three of the prints lead to. “Matty, here’s what I got at a first glance.” Jack took a picture and sent it. “Can Ri do something with that?”   
  
“We will see, check out the rest of the house, signal our boys down.”   
  
“I am Matty, but I am getting nothing at all.”   
  
“Go inside, a team followed you in and we will trace their set positions and check up on them.”   
  
“Alright,” Jack said before heading in, gun unholstered. “Clear.” He muttered to himself every time he cleared a room just out of habit.

 

Jack stood up straight and looked around confused. “Matty looks like they left in a hurry, but still had time to disappear out of the house.”   
  
“Jack there is still another set of rooms, one is a small room that is-”   
  
“I see them, a door is open on one, I’m checking it first.” Jack hurried as he ran sticking to the wall with his gun lowered to the ground. He burst in the room, raising his gun and looked around until his eyes landed on a crimson mess of what used to be blonde. “Holy crap, Kage!”   
  
Her blue eyes looked emptily at something that didn’t exist as she laid limply on the cold concrete, covered in that same crimson that used to belong inside her body. Jack could tell by the amount of blood and how she lay, where she was shot. Back of the head execution style. Jack didn’t even bother checking if she still had a pulse. He could tell by the blue-grey hue to her once pink and white skin that she no longer contained life. “Jack, did you find her?”   
  
“I found a body...it-it’s, um, Kage’s body…” Jack was breathless for a moment, trying to draw up some sort of emotion to feel, but this only fueled his hate for the lunatic.

 

“Jack…” Matty gasped and Jack could hear it on the other side of the intercom. 

 

“Ms. Weber, permission to speak?” Said a third-party voice.

 

“Yes, Darrion. What is it?”   
  
“We got into place, just as the other team was set up and we each found a body, execution style. Looks like a sniper, but from the same ground level as the rest, I-I um, what do we do?” Darrion’s voice cracked. “Alyssa, Myka, Alex, and I are all just standing over our coworkers, I just don’t know what to do Ms. Weber.”

 

From what Jack remembered on several TAC meetings before deploying into battle, Darrion and his crew were new to the field, but each excelled in their own ways. Darrion was close with each of the other members of the Phoenix TAC team and always did his best to be friendly, but this is why they said don’t try to make friends with walking corpses. They all knew the risks of this job were fifty-fifty on whether or not they made it home each day, but Darrion still pushed to be social and make connections. He knew Mac and wanted to be assigned to the task along with the other three in his specific team. Jack wished that they didn’t have to stand over the corpses of their friends, but they signed up for it and this will only make them tougher.    
  
“I want you to lend support to Agent Dalton and have Agent Mihahne head up your team.”   
  
“Ms. Weber, Alyssa? She’s our back support, not our main combatant.”   
  
“She has training and a gun, does she not?”   
  
“Yes, but-”   
  
“Darrion, I understand you want to protect her by keeping her in the back of the team, but she has a job to do like the rest of us here. Do you understand?”   
  
Before Darrion could say anything more a soft voice came through. “This is Agent Mihahne, I understand that you want the team and I to lend our support to Agent Dalton, how exactly would you like us to carry out the said task? Are you talking medical support or more along the lines of combat?”   
  
“Both, I want Myka to analyze the bag that Jack has in his vehicle and Darrion and Alex to back up with combat. You are going to be the strategist, and  also the medical support that Mac might need if Murdoc decides to dump him off.”

 

“Understood. Squad, Omega V113 is clear on the orders.”   
  
“Omega V113, get out there and bring our boy home and bring the monster down who did this.”   
  
“Matilda...are you saying he should be considered an uncontrolled threat and neutralized before he has a chance to do any further damage?”   
  
“No, bring him in if you have the chance, but let it be stated that he is a threat who has proved himself more than dangerous and if the shot if offered, it should be taken.” Matty said without a studder of her confidence.”   
  
“Copy, we are now under order of Agent Jack Dalton and standing by for any further instruction.” Alyssa had a special way of dealing with Darrion and a different way on the field than most other Agents. Although she was lacking in the hand to hand combat, she made it up with her aim and medical expertise Jack both pitied the girl and feared her. One on specific incidence, Mac was clipped with a bullet and refused to even look at Alyssa when the two teams partnered up on an assignment. Alyssa snuck up behind Mac and was able to pin Mac down long enough to get a closer look at the wound before Mac tossed her off. She wasn’t an amazing agent, but she knew how to take care of her squad, even if it meant dealing with Mac’s incompetence when it came to his personal health. In the end, she was even able to convince Mac to let her dress his wound. Jack appreciated her willingness to go to such lengths for her team and anyone on the right side of the fight.

 

“Omega V113, head down to my location.” Said Jack walking out of the house, leaving Kage behind. He whispered a prayer for her, Jack didn’t really take a liking to religion as much as he thought he should in some moments. Sure, he asked the Big Guy some favors once in a while, but that was to bring them home safely. It was mostly out of superstition though. This wasn’t superstition this time, this was a genuine prayer to the Man Upstairs, for Kage to rest and for Kage’s sister. He had no idea how to process that Kage was dead, but he guessed he just wouldn’t process it at all. Kage had been left in some cold torture chamber and for that Jack felt guilty, but there wasn’t much to do until the proper team came and collected the agents and gave them a proper resting place and ceremony to go along with it.

 

After Omega V113 came out from the small patch of woods that surrounded the house and Myka analyzed the bag and examined its contents, they showed Jack their findings. It was a small postcard of Minnesota saying: “Greetings From an Old Friend! See You Soon!” and an address to an old abandoned warehouse near a port that had long since been used and was probably broken down. That wasn't it though, Murdoc demanded the entire team at 6 AM in the morning to be present at the time “the drop” will be made.

 

Jack wanted to swarm right in and storm the place and grab Mac up from Murdoc himself, but Matty was already on her way with Riley, Bozer, and even Rena. She had convinced him to come to wait for the rest of the team to reconvene and talk about what is the best move for Mac's sake. Jack wasn't sure how much longer Mac could hold out with that maniac but he wanted him home the moment the monster took him.   



	18. Dreams

The familiar smell of antibacterial cleaner and something floral invaded Mac’s nostrils. Fluorescent lights perpetrated his eyelids and forced them open. Mac was in a hospital, not a Phoenix Medical, but a hospital. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center to be exact. Mac heard the sounds of early morning traffic below him and felt a thick blanket encasing him in warmth. He looked at it and immediately recognized it as Jack’s old blanket that Mac used whenever he was staying at Jack’s place. Jack, if he still cared would be there any moment to yell at him for waking up without him being there.

 

Mac sat up with no problem. He felt fine, so why was he in a hospital? What happened to put him here? The most he felt was a bit dizzy, he couldn’t understand what was wrong with him. He knew Jack would be there soon, to yell at him for being reckless in some way. Mac couldn’t remember anything that would put him in the hospital, no mission, no anything. Mac felt cold so he pulled the blanket up further, no he was so hot he felt cold. “Wait does it work like that?” He said aloud.

 

He decided to press the call button so that the doctors know that he is awake and he can figure out why he was here in the first place. He sat for about ten minutes before all he got in response was silence. He tried it again. Nothing, there was nothing. Mac decided that it was probably broken but best not to fix it because it wasn’t Phoenix property so Matty would set into him for messing with the equipment. He threw off the blanket and called Jack's name. Why was his first thought to call for Jack and not a nurse or doctor? He turned to step off of the bed but the moment his leg touched the ground he crumbled and a shooting pain flew up and tensed his whole body.

 

“He okay?” It was a softer voice that pulled him from his sweet dream.

 

“He's fine,” Murdoc grabbed underneath Mac's arms and pulled him to a standing position. Then he took his arms and wrapped one around Mac's waist and the other pulling Macs arm over his own shoulder. Mac refusing to open his eyes hoped that he’d be allowed to go back to that room and wait for Jack to come to get him. “Just a little sleepy. Stay by my side and do not go anywhere.” If Murdoc was honest with himself he hated to drag a child in this, especially one that posed as great an intellect as she did. She had understood when Mac was hurt and questioned the inconsistencies in Murdoc’s stories, which kept him on his toes at all times. He knew he would have to get the mother involved sooner rather than later, but she has proved quite hard to find.

 

Mac went limp in his arms which almost dragged both of them down this time. Mac smelled the salt in the air and felt the cold nip at his skin, he shivered.  
  
“He’s cold.” The blonde child stated.

 

“I know.” In hindsight, Murdoc probably should have put a jacket on him, he was already showing signs of a cold or a bacterial infection of the lungs. It wouldn’t matter soon. Soon the cuts would be scars. The broken bones would be healed. The damaged mind would be comforted, but like the cuts, would have its own scars. MacGyver, before this, ran every day a great distance, ate healthily, only took medication when absolutely necessary, and had a decent family setting. _Kage. Oh right, I shot her. Oh well, if Jack is half as good as mothering him as he claims, he’ll get used to her absence._ “He will be fine soon.”   
  
“Who is here?” She asked inquisitively.   
  
“What?” Murdoc looked around but saw nothing as he brought Mac back up to a half walking, half dragging position. “What do you mean? I see nothing.”

 

“Metal shells.” She stated pointing at the ground. The shells were almost all but buried by the snow, easy to miss if you weren’t looking. _Being closer to the ground must have its perks._ He thought he’d use that one with Matilda if he had a chance. Murdoc had been sure not to show her any killing this far, he wasn't sure how she knew but it must have been her mother who showed her.

 

Murdoc looked at the brass shells of what looked like a GLOCK 19. The kid had an eye. Who was her mother? Murdoc laughed. He’d seen a picture of her but only looked at her enough to shoot her on spot. Thinking back she looked familiar, so did the kid. Murdoc always promised to never forget a face, but he couldn’t put his finger on this one. He’d been too preoccupied with his guest to worry about a hit. Murdoc knew he was obsessed but MacGyver gave him a thrill. Watching his every move, every mission was interesting. Murdoc had proven quite well over the months that he was better than the best at staying in the shadows, when a group of highly trained agents couldn’t even notice they were being followed. As of late, he felt left out of the misfits little games and he felt like he needed to remind them that he was still a big player. Maybe this would give them a little incentive to include him in their games next time.

 

“Get behind me and walk only when I walk.” The girl was good at following instructions, too good. There was an understanding in her eyes that the situation they might be walking into could be dangerous. Her eyes gleamed with readiness as if she was a highly trained agent ready to strike down on her mark. What he wouldn’t give to turn those innocent eyes into deadly killing machines. The fear a child could instill after someone let their guard down to them was always a delight. He missed that look, although he’d only received it from his father.

 

“Who’s here?” She asked in a lower, hushed whisper. She had a good grasp of what was happening. It was scary good.

 

“I am not sure. They might not be here anymore.”  
  
“How?” Murdoc knew she was asking ‘how do you know,’ because he had lived with her for over a month now.   
  
“The shells were buried in the snow,” Murdoc looked and saw tire tracks that lead in and out of the snow as if someone pulled up and backed away in a hurry. “No fresh tire tracks, they have a layer of snow in them, and I can’t really see any footprints that would indicate that someone is still here.”   
  
“Safe?” _Damn, she understood that? Children hook on to keywords and form a concept of the situation based on those, not the entire thing. It seemed like she has a grasp on more than keywords and phrases. She must already have experienced something of this caliber then._   
  
“I am not too sure of that yet.” Mac mumbled something incoherently and swatted at Murdoc hard enough to almost make him lose his grip and have Mac get a face full of snow. “Would you stop?”

 

Mac opened his eyes and immediately shut them at how white everything was. The gears in his head were already spinning, trying to get his bearings on anything but he didn't even know where he was. There were sounds of light water, crunching snow, cracking bones-Mac screamed and pushed himself away from Murdoc, tumbling to the ground coughing.

 

“Stop it.” Murdoc stood over Mac and watched his eyes frantically searching for something that wasn't even there. “It's cold out here, let's go inside.”

 

“Don't touch me!” Mac yelled white fluff was being spread as he was trying to swim backwards in the snow.

 

“Is okay?” Asked the girl from behind, who was watching every panicked action.

 

“Fine, just confused.” Murdoc rubbed the bridge of his nose thinking about what to do.

 

“Why?” All these damn questions with her.

 

“He isn't feeling well. We are going to go inside and I'll come back for him.” And they did. They walked over to the warehouse. It was abandoned so it was rusty and falling apart everywhere, but it would do. It was almost completely empty, except for the crates that Murdoc prepared, and two couches. Murdoc turned on his heels and went back for MacGyver, who had now been trying to stand but was unable to gain any solid or balanced footing.

 

Murdoc stood behind him and thought to himself: _This is just too good._ With even the lightest shoves Mac would be on the ground, but Murdoc wasn't a gentle person. One hard shove and the blonde had a face of snow. Mac didn't try to get up, he didn't even move. “Don't suffocate yourself.”

 

A few minutes later Murdoc had settled Mac down on the opposite couch from himself and began watching both MacGyver staring blankly at the floor and his watch. “It should be soon now.” He said to the little girl.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Matty, Riley, Bozer, and Rena all met Jack and the squad of Omega V113 in a run-down motel just six minutes outside Mission City. Jack and Darrion looked the worst of them all but the rest of the team can tell that the other three were having a tough time as well. Jack, having not shaved, had scruff and dark circles under his eyes, Darrion still too young to grow a substantial amount of facial hair only have the matching bags under his eyes. If any of the team had slept, it hadn’t been much. Riley, Jack, Bozer, and the rest of the Phoenix agents had had their share of restless days due to missions or even decompressing after one, but never had they been so hard on the teams.

 

The entirety of Phoenix had missed Mac’s presence whether it be in the labs, the greetings and morning talks to the front desk, that always made them late for the debriefing, or when he fixed something in the break room. Every faculty member knew Mac by name and knew him well. Since Kage and Jack didn’t have particularly useful skills when it came to science or engineering they typically stuck close to Mac, Bozer, or Riley, whoever was doing the most interesting work at the point. Due to this, Kage was at Mac’s side and also got to know the other coworkers of her workplace. They had been a great duo bringing a smile to people's faces when they were stuck and now? Kage is gone and even if Mac comes back those blue eyes won’t sparkle and his lips won’t twitch into a smile at even Jack’s lame jokes.

 

Riley wanted more than anything to hold Jack like he used to hold her when her dad became mad and would yell. She wanted to tell him that Mac would smile at the sight of his family and that Kage was okay. But she couldn’t. Kage was not okay, she was gone. Mac was still missing and had probably gone through hell and she wasn’t sure who she could hack to get Mac back and make him okay again. Nothing was a guarantee.

 

“How do we know Murdoc is gonna make good on his deal?” Jack sounded like he was on the verge of tears.  
  
“We don’t. We can only hope.” Matty was jet-lagged but trying her best not to show it. If she wanted her teams to be strong she needed to lead by example. It was hard to keep all her emotions under control but if no one saw the foundation crack than they trusted the stability of the building. She needed to have them trust her and only if she could rely on the rest of the team not to crumble, lest she follows in their stead. “We have an hour until the meeting that Murdoc set up. We miss it, we miss Mac. We miss Mac, we don’t know if he’ll ever comeback.”

 

“This is some sick game of capture the flag. As long as he thinks we want the flag, he’ll wave it in our faces until he gives it back because he knows what direction we are going to run, straight.” Alyssa had spoken up from behind. She was the tactical head of several Omega V teams and the medical expert of V113 who had ventured into Delta territory with Darrion for about four months before she would rather patch bullet holes over making them. Matty spotted the kid from overseas and she immediately began working at the Phoenix. “Straight and reckless is the path he wants us to follow and so far we have unknowingly been playing into his hands, you all obviously know this. The moment we act like we no longer care, he’ll torment him and dispose of him, so we can not give into his demands. Let’s play into his hands but use what he doesn’t know,” She gestured towards Rena, “to our benefit. What he doesn't know will surely kill him.”

 

“You want me to kill him?” Rena asked incredulously. “I mean I would love to put a bullet in his skull but-”  
  
“No, bad use of words. I would also like to put a new hole in the bastard, but we can’t-” Alyssa stopped herself knowing that those words were exactly the ones she meant. “No, Matty. I can’t even pretend like that’s not what I am going to do. If I have the shot, I am taking it. Mac is like a big brother to me, I am not letting that maniac even look at him again. And even if I don’t have a shot, I will make one for someone else.”   
  
“I wouldn’t ask you to do anything else. Murdoc has proved himself a danger and if the need for him to be neutralized arises, I will make sure no one here hesitates. Alyssa, Rena. You are both heading up the V113 and are in charge of how the bullets are dispensed but do wait for a signal.”   
  
“Matty, I want to be the one who-”   
  
“Jack.” Alyssa sat on the edge of the bed that Jack had been settled on for hours. “For us to head guns, that will require snipers. Snipers are out of sight but always in mind. But who knows what this guy has put in his head.” Her silky milk brown hair fell loose from her tight bun from the stressful night and now hung loose.

 

“She’s right. I know how you feel about Mac and how you want to protect him. You’ve said he’s your brother, but what if Murdoc made Mac second guess that. The recovery with you up front may be exactly what he wants but is also exactly what Mac needs. He needs to know that whatever Murdoc said isn’t true. He needs to know that you will always be there for him.”  
  
“But I wasn’t there for him in Paris! I went home! He went home! He was taken from that home, and if I had picked up the damn phone and excepted his apologizes from that stupid argument Murdoc would have never got his hands on him. This is my fault and no matter how many times any of you say it,it doesn’t change anything!” Jack huffed and buried his face in his hands.   
  
“You’re right.” Alyssa stood up and crossed her arms. “It is your fault and nothing can change that this happened.”   
  
“Alyssa,” Matty warned. “I think you’re overstepping your bounds, just a bit.”

 

“No, Matty she’s right.” Rena leaned against a far wall. “If Jack blames himself, it’s his fault. If you had been there to escort Mac home after Paris like a proper bodyguard, Murdoc wouldn’t have been able to get so far and Mac wouldn’t be messed up. We would have never been forced to watch Murdoc bring a sledgehammer down on Mac’s leg and hear the deafening sounds of crunching bone or the heart breaking screams of a bomb nerd who has been through too much already by his mid twenties. So yeah, Jack. It’s your fault, because you can predict when a lunatic is going to try to have a heart to heart with the office favorite. And you? Blame yourself for something that you regret because you didn’t know that if you left his side for one moment that was the moment that everybody and their brothers targeted the blonde kid on the street! So, so sorry that you didn’t use your spidey-sense to tell it would happen before the danger!” Rena’s voice didn’t even waiver.   
  
“Rena, Alyssa back off.” Matty held her own position quite well.

 

“She has a point.” Alyssa began to clear her throat. “It would have happened regardless if you were there or not. I-I saw Kage’s, um, I saw her body. The position the analysts gave, they speculate that she was killed in front of Mac. What if you were there Jack? He would have kidnapped you too. Tortured you both in front of each other.”

 

“And killed you to see the look on his face.” Rena added the unspoken words Alyssa held from slipping past her tongue.

 

“I know but-”  
  
“But what Jack? Your face needs to be the one he sees upfront and first, not people with guns. Your hands need to be the first ones that hold him, not some medics. Your voice is the one he needs to hear first, not Matty barking orders. You need to be there. You Jack.”

 

Matty finally saw why the two had silently agreed to blame Jack and yell at him for it. They were trying to support the main beam of the building that was on it’s way down if it had kept going as it was. It had apparently worked too, Jack stood up and began to holster his gun and gear up.

 

Jack straightened and got into Delta mode. “Alright, here is what we’re gonna do.”

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Murdoc made sure the girl was fully asleep before making his way over to Mac and injecting another dose of ecstasy that he knew would either make the nightmares haunt him worse or give in a sweet relief from reality. Murdoc was okay with both options because if he could force a sensation, feeling, or emotion on this one human he had already completed his goal.


	19. Found

Hello everyone! First super sorry for not posting anything for a while, my health took a turn for the worst and I was too focused on my academics to write fanfictions that required actual thought and story plot such as this one. Very busy as you can imagine as a senior in high school. And now what you came for...

 

____________________________

 

Jack looked on the small screen that Matty had provided, three people inside. One laying on the couch, one pacing methodically, and another smaller blob of color sitting on the floor moving something. Jack waved towards Bozer and Riley to also come and view the figures. “Check this out. New plan, Ri you get a gun. When our squad up there takes care of Doc Crazy, I retrieved Mac and Matty barks orders, you and Boze are going in to check up on that-” Jack jabbed at the screen near the small blob. “If it’s a kid, it might be Cassian.”   
  
“Impossible, I would have heard differently,” Matty said.

 

“Maybe not if he had friends.” Jack slid the screen in a pocket of his belt.   
  
“Murdoc? Friends?” Bozer asked incredulously.

 

“Look all I know is he was gathering up the lump on what appeared to be a couch and heading towards the north exit. That means he will be around the corner any minute.” As if clockwork the familiar voice began to sing home on the range as the sound of crunching snow got louder. The team decided to meet him halfway and moved closer to the sound. 

 

“So nice to see you all, wish it had been in better conditions.” Murdoc pulled a half-conscious MacGyver after him and they all stared. All of them inwardly horrified but outwardly angry.

 

“You Son of a Bitch!” Jack growled.   
  
“Don’t speak such ill-mannered words about a woman you don’t even know Jackie Boy.” Murdoc teased. 

 

“Whatever woman had you as a child I am sorry for.” Matty snarked. “Give us MacGyver.”   
  
“Well you see,” Murdoc showed a wide grin and pulled a gun out and pressed it into Mac’s back making him stumble forward. “I don’t feel like it is going to be that easy,” Murdoc said.

 

“Like hell, it isn’t.” Jack aimed his gun at Murdoc head. Murdoc responded by playfully putting his head behind Mac’s. “You hand over Mac and give yourself up. We take him to the hospital and you to a concrete box.”   
  
“See I still have a job I need to finish, so that box you promised me is going to have to wait.”

 

“We don’t care about the ‘job’ you have, Murdoc. You are either leaving here in cuffs or a body bag.”   
  
“I don’t think to threaten me is the best idea.”

 

A voice came through over the comms. “Jack none of us have a clear shot, we could risk it going through and through and hitting the asset.” Jack knew that Alyssa using the word ‘asset’ was a by the book move but it didn’t make him any less upset.    
  
“Don’t move,” Jack said to both Alyssa and Murdoc who had begun to walk away. “Got that?”   
  
“Loud and clear, Jack.” Said the voices in his ear. 

 

Murdoc on the other hand was a little less compliant. “I said don’t move!”   
  
“I’m just giving your good friends, a better shot. Why don’t you tell them to come out and play too?” Murdoc laughed.

 

“Shut up! You killed Kage! Why did you do it?”   
  
“Other than the fact that she got in my way? Honestly, it was because she didn’t belong. Not in Phoenix, not in your makeshift family of tagalongs. She just didn’t fit. And who calls themselves Samantha?” Murdoc tilted his head a little to the left.  _ Just a little more.  _ Jack thought. “Honestly, you can pick from any name and accent in the world and she picks Australian and Samantha?”   
  
Jack shook off whatever Murdoc was saying as he was just trying to confuse them. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rena getting closer slowly, she ducked behind a van as Murdoc turned his head behind Mac. He began to slowly drag Mac backward towards the van. Jack had to interact fast. “What do you mean, she could pick?”   
  
Murdoc stopped genuinely surprised. “You didn’t know? Matty, don’t you people ever do background checks?”   
  
“Completely and thoroughly,” she added.

 

“How did she sneak past you then?” Murdoc shook his head. “You people will never understand the dedication and time I put into making sure everyone is who they say they are. We can’t have just anyone having contact with Angus here.” Mac’s head groggily fell forward. Murdoc kept his hold. Rena took the advantage to crouch from the back of the van and make a move to take a low shot. Jack was about to question why she would aim so low but Murdoc whipped around and fired off a shot of his own, only missing because she dove out of the way, her own weapon hitting the ground and firing off a shot.

 

When all this happened Murdoc lost his grip on Mac and he fell forward enough for Jack to take a shot of his own, since the Omega team would still be too high up or not have a good enough angle not to hit Mac. Jack barely missed and hit Murdoc’s shoulder. Murdoc stumbled back and fell into the snow. Jack maneuvered for Bozer to get Cassian and Riley to provide first aid to Rena, Matty was immediately on the phone calling for transport. V113 came out of hiding guns aimed at the same target. Jack kicked the gun away from Murdoc and left the rest for V113.

 

After holstering his weapon he gathered up Mac in his arms and began whispering in his ears and combing through his hair with his fingers. “Hey bud, I am here. Sorry, it took so long. Are ya mad at me?” Mac whined and pushed Jack away, mainly batting at the hand in his hair. “Hey, hey. It’s okay. Bud. It’s us. Your family is here. Mac?”   
  
Mac still pushed away from Jack but now his attempts became more desperate and actual tears accompanied his struggles. Mac was crying. Jack found himself quickly doing the same thing. “I am so sorry about Paris, about the calls, about everything. You hear me? Everything. And as I know you, you are going to be bitching about medical and eating pizza in no time. In fact, I remember some warm beers you promised me.” Jack began to feel a warm substance soak his tactical pants. Jack looked down to see Mac’s ‘bad’ leg bleeding into the white snow, turning it a bright red. Jack set Mac down and found a bullet hole in his ‘cast.’ 

 

“Someone get the hell over here. Alyssa!” Immediately Jack found a young agent at his side finding the beginning of the wrap and undoing it violently but yet not even disturbing the leg much. She handed the wrap to Jack and began to examine how the cast was formed before ripping that open too. 

 

“I need something to pack the wound with and then I am going to use that wrap to secure it in place, that will hold until we get him to the nearest hospital.”   
  
Murdoc began to watch the events unfold at his feet before turning his attention to Riley and the other chick he shot. Murdoc’s eyes widened in delight as he saw Rena. He began to sit up. “Stay down!” Darrion yelled. The kid was loud and annoying, but the only real threat. The other two looked too nervous and exhausted to actually pose a danger.

 

“I need medical attention. Or I’ll bleed out and I don’t think Matilda wants that before I tell her about Blue Bird.” Murdoc shouted. Matty’s head popped up from her phone call with medical staff to rush double time. She shot the killer a stone cold glare

 

“Keep him alive.” Matty barked. “That is a highly classified case and we need to know where he got that information. Darrion, perform basic first aid.”

 

“Understood.” Darrion flipped his gun around to his back and walked around the side of Murdoc and shoved some gauze from his medical supply in his vest in the wound. He went to get more gauze to wrap the wound before Murdoc grabbed one of his arms and used his leg to kick out Darrion's own and flipped him back knocking the other two down as well. 

 

“An assassin first.” He said cockily. He grabbed Darrion's smaller handgun from his holster and raised it towards Riley’s leg grazing her left calf. She fell to the ground with a yelp and Rena looked at him dead in the eyes. A loud thud left Murdoc unconscious, and Myka standing above him with the butt of her gun pointing at his head.

 

“Nice hit Myka.” Alex stood herself and Darrion up.

 

“Thanks. You and Darrion finish restraining him and applying medical assistance,” Myka headed off towards Riley and Rena. “I’ll help these two.”   
  
“Got it, will do.” 

 

“I am fine it’s just a graze.” Riley insisted that Myka finished helping Rena who was bleeding much worse.

 

“Hey, Matty?” Bozer ran out of the warehouse and looked at the carnage. “What happened to Riley?”   
  
“Murdoc. What did you find out about Cassian?”   
  
“That you were right, it’s not Cassian.”   
  
“Than who?”   
  
“Mommy!” A small voice ran out from behind Bozer to Rena and Riley.    
  
“Macalynn! Baby!” Rena let her head fall back in the snow out of relief. Macalynn stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing her injury. “I am okay, the ambulances are coming to help us.”   
  
“Big Mac, he is hurt. Uncle Murdoc has been hurting him.” Macalynn blurted as if she was scared to say anything.    
  
“He is  _ not _ your uncle.” Rena narrowed her eyes at Murdoc and softened them back up when facing her child. “Over there is a nice man and woman, I want you to go over there with them.”   
  
“Did Murdoc shot you, Mommy?”   
  
“Shoot,” She corrected her daughter. “And yes he did. Mommy got distracted and messed up. And Big Mac is hurt now.”

 

“He was hurt before.” She stated in a matter-of-factly tone.    
  
“Yeah, but I hurt him more.”

 

“More than him?” Macalynn pointed to Murdoc.    
  
“No, I hurt him too. I should have been more careful. Now go and do as I told you.” Rena stared at Mac. “No one can hurt him as much as Murdoc has already. If he doesn’t give up, MacGyver will be a strong force.”

 

“He never gives up.” Riley said also looking at Mac. “He is just going to need some help.”

  
  
“And you better be there to give it to him.”

  
  
“He’s got an entire secret government agency and Think Tank cover to back him up. No way any of us are going to let him take the easy way out."

 

Not soon enough, sirens were heard in the distance but no one found this comforting enough.

________________________

 

Sorry, it is such a short chapter, more to follow soon! I will provide explanations for the Rena Macalynn situation as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Whatch'a think? Let me know!


End file.
